Messiah of the Void
by Touhoufanatic
Summary: Sequel to Emissary of the void that picks up years later. time goes on, counties rebuild and alliances are forged. the world rebuilds, but fate is not kind, and war like none other comes to the world once more. temporarily on hiatus so i can focus on border of the void.
1. Prologue 1 - Nexus

**Authors forward:**

**Emissary of the void was my first big and largely successful fanfic. The idea was initial small and simple and evolved into what has become my most successful and well received fic. That does not mean however that it was perfect. Throughout the writing of emissary many small points ground on me, and looking back at it after its completion, there are many points that i wish I had done better.**

**Because of this the way I will be doing messiah will be slightly different than emissary, primarily in how it is built and posted. I am not changing my basic writing style, but will be breaking the story in to a prologue section and three acts. In addition to this, there will be a slightly greater time between updates, not because I won't work on it, but because I will be trying harder than ever before to make the chapters as good as I possibly can with my skill.**

**Knowing this I hope you all will enjoy the first of three prequel chapters and I hope you will enjoy the story.**

**Note: like emissary I own no characters except original characters and original concepts. And the fourth Tiberium war never happened!**

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**Prologue chapter 1 - Nexus**

And so it is said that in a world not our own it began! It began with the great teacher, the great messiah, the great leader, the prophet Kane! Kane came to this world not our own and began his great work, preparing it for the gift of Tiberium, and when it came, he was its messiah, its prophet! But lo, the forces of deceit and selfishness would ever be in his way, feeding the people of this world lies about Tiberium, and lies about the prophet! Disagreement gave way to contempt and contempt gave way to violence, this violence then led to great conflicts, the great Tiberium wars. Through these wars the creation of Nod, Kane's chosen children, and of GDI, Nods greatest foe, were created and fought amongst each other, a great battle between truth and lies, between equality and inequality, between Tiberium and stagnation!

In the third of these great wars did our great leader, the prophetess, come to find the truths that Kane would tell. The child of Tristanian nobles the prophetess had an upbringing of great potential, but fate had different ideas for her. The prophetess was flung to the prophet's world, and there was found and taught personally by the great prophet himself. By the great prophet's council, and the teaching of our Brothers from another world, the prophetess came to realize the truth, and that truth was equality through Tiberium!

This world was dying. Though Nod fought to preserve it and bring about the change it needed through Tiberium, its people boldly and wrongly clung to their titles and values, dooming the world, and the prophetess knew that our world was going on the same path! With emotions of sadness filling her heart and tears filling her eyes, the prophetess left her Family of Nod and left the prophet to bring Kane's Word and Nods beliefs to our world, to save it from the doom it was hurtling towards.

The prophetess returned to our world and worked for its betterment, fighting both the fanatical Brimiric church, the nobles and the invading Scrin, all to create a better world where its people would not destroy it! To defend their titles, the nobles and kings came seeking alliance with our might and when their safety from the invading Scrin was discovered, they showed their true colors, and attempted to kill our prophetess and her inner circle. But those true to Nod are not so easily felled. We left Halkeginia, traveling south to this new continent where we were reunited with our prophetess and her inner circle.

Reunited and whole we took this new undiscovered continent of Kania for our own and though hard pressed, prevailed over the difficulties of settlement. Now, with our dark elven allies and our advanced Magic and Tiberium Technologies we have built a great land of promise and equality to work toward our ultimate goals from.

While the great prophet Kane and Nod work toward the ultimate goal of ascension, we too work toward a great goal by the prophetess' light. We too shall ascend to the stars as more than what we are, but as agreed on by all, we shall not ascend until we can do so with all upon this earth! We have one vision and one purpose!

Peace through power!

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"And that is the Told History of Nod and the Crystalists, class." The teacher said in a low voice as he looked around the classroom at the various students around. All the students were still either paying attention or taking notes on their small computers built into their desks. "Alright, as soon as you have finished taking your notes open-," the teacher began before abruptly stopping, causing the entire classroom to look to each other in confusion. Before the teacher or a student could say anything a woman walked into the classroom and stepped up beside the teacher, causing him to bow almost reverently. The woman wore a well-fitting dark sleeveless top and a long black skirt that showed off a bit of her midriff. Her green hair flowed down to the small of her back and she stood there for many moments before smiling to the teacher and speaking.

"You tell the told history well"

The teacher stiffened from the praise. "I- thank you, High General Fouquet. You do me a great honour in saying so."

"There's no need to be so formal you know. I'm not here for any particular reason."

"So this visit is truly unexpected then." The teacher said before looking to his class and seeing their faces of anticipation. "Would you like to teach the class for a bit?"

Fouquet looked at the class, only then realizing their anticipation. "For a while, I suppose." Fouquet replied, hearing whispered declarations of happiness from the class of students almost instantly.

"Then I'll leave it to you." the teacher said as he backed away and leaned against the nearby wall so that Fouquet could have the class's undivided attention.

Fouquet looked back at the teacher. "This class is year eight, correct?"

"Yes."

"Good," Fouquet said as she turned back to the class. "Let's give you all a simple quiz, shall we?"

Most of the class shook their heads as one student raised his hand. "Is it to be open book?"

Fouquet grinned slightly. "No. Anyone can answer the questions though and they shall be relatively simple. First question then: our historic homeland is Halkeginia, name the countries of Halkeginia."

A male student threw up his hand as he spoke. "Gallia, Tristania, Germania and Romalia."

"You forgot one." Fouquet said slyly.

"I did not. Albion was destroyed by the Scrin; I therefore thought it pointless to count it."

"Huh. Very well, I can accept that logic to a point. Second question; We, the Crystalists, came to this continent after defeating the Scrin at Tristania's capitol. What did we name this continent and why?"

A female dark elf with bright blonde hair raised her hand causing her hair to bounce around, eclipsing her tanned brown skin. "The continent was named Kania after the teacher of the prophetess and the All Father of Nod, the prophet Kane."

"Very good, though I would have been very worried if you had somehow gotten it wrong. When did the dark elves join us and what's the history of it?"

The same dark elven girl raised her hand but stood up this time as she spoke. "My species had been exiled from the elven lands generations ago and had been wandering the wastes south of the elven deserts. We wandered to Kania a years after it had been settled and quickly came to an understanding with each other. Our people have been one with the Crystalists ever since."

"Good. The dark elves are as much part of the Crystalists as anyone else. Final question then: All of our technology is based around both Magic and Tiberium based science, can any of you give a brief example of the types of magic and Tiberium?"

A boy in the front raised his hands and stood up. " Halkeginian magic is based on a pentagram with water, wind, fire, earth and void magic, it should also be noted that elven nature magic is an opposite to Void magic but not on the Halkeginian pentagram, despite being a known magic in our world."

Fouquet nodded in approval. "Very good. I won't ask about the individual magic's, so please answer the questions second part would you?"

The boy nodded. "Of course, General. Tiberium is a noncarbon-based element that has strong ferrous qualities with non-resonating reversible energy. Tiberium absorbs matter around it, especially heavy metals, and can mutate biological materials because of this."

"Not bad. What is the difference between its types?"

The boy suddenly looked ashamed. "Um, we haven't quite gotten to that, all we know is that green is more common and that blue and red are less common."

"That's quite alright." Fouquet said as the boy sat back down. "I'll give you all a little bit of a head start then. Blue and red Tiberium differ in two specific ways. Tiberium becomes blue when it absorbs large amounts of heavy metals, making them worth more, but also hard to find naturally. Red Tiberium is formed when Tiberium absorbs radiation or, more commonly, when it absorbs excess mana from people or the environment. Red Tiberium is what powers most of our technology because of this." Fouquet added as she stepped away from the center of the room allowing its teacher to step back up and clap his hands to gain the students attention.

"Thank you for your time, General Fouquet. I'm sure the students will use your review effectively."

Fouquet let out a smile and waved as she left the room. "I'm sure they will."

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Fouquet walked through the doorway to the Crystalists main research laboratory, and was instantly greeted by a sight that vexed her slightly. In the center of the room stood a single man, his tanned brown dark elvish skin illuminated in the Labs red light. He was as tall as Fouquet, with long white braided hair that made him look older than he was, though not by much. As he typed information into the computer he stood before and muttered incoherently under his breath Fouquet slowly and quietly walked into the lab, the door sliding silently shut behind her. Slowly she walked up behind the man and without touching him, leaned over his shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek.

"You know if you actually slept once in a while you would be able to work more effectively, Faravis." Fouquet said in a light tone as she continued to lean over his shoulder.

Faravis turned his head and planted a deep kiss on Fouquet's lips. "How long has it been then?"

Fouquet stepped back and walked up beside him, leaning against the computer before answering. "Three days since you've left the lab, four since I've seen you in bed."

Faravis's head hung low. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I-,"

"Since when have you ever needed to explain your reason to me, hmm? I know that you've been stuck in here researching all kinds of things and just lost track of time."

Faravis looked back at the computer and hit a few keys bringing up a series of paragraphs. "Legion, please run through this for any errors." Faravis said before turning around and leaning against the computer like Fouquet was. "Have I missed anything major over the last few days?"

"Nothing much really. Only important thing is that Louise went over to Mirage to check up on the Dauntless's progress, again."

"Ah, it should be done soon, should it not?"

Fouquet nodded. "Yes, just a matter of weeks I'm told. Louise is keeping a close eye on it though, the last we need is for our first naval Dreadnaught to sink on its maiden voyage."

Faravis let out a light chuckle. "That would be pretty bad, but I doubt it would happen. The engineers would never live it down. And the prophetess would be furious at them for months."

"True. Have you seen Clarity recently by chance?"

Faravis gave Fouquet a confused look. "No I haven't, I've been stuck in here for three days, remember."

"Yes," Fouquet answered before letting out a deep sigh. "And here I thought I just wasn't paying attention. What are we going to do with that girl?"

"She's out on a mission with Emelia." came a third voice from behind them.

Fouquet looked up to see Siesta standing in the doorway of the lab, her now grown up body filling out her Kunoichi outfit even better than it had years before, showing both leg and cleavage and her now long black and deep blue hair done into a large ponytail that lifted above her head a bit before hanging down behind her. "Good evening, Siesta. So she's with Emelia then?"

Siesta walked into the lab, the door closing behind her. "I did just say that. If you two lovebirds paid a bit more attention to your own daughter you might have noticed her leave with Emelia this morning."

"Is it so wrong to be in love?" Fouquet commented as she quickly landed a peck on Faravis's cheek. "Besides it's not like you're any different. What mission are they on?"

Siesta walked over to a small computer terminal and brought up a map of the continent. "We've been getting odd reports of strange creatures near the River Nile at the north eastern edge of the continent. I asked the two of them to check on it for me."

"To keep them from trying to sneak off to Mirage again, huh?" Fouquet said with a smile.

Siesta glanced to Fouquet and returned her smile. "Yes, they both can wait before seeing the Dauntless, unlike Louise who just can't wait."

"She just wants to make sure things go well."

"Yes, but her constant visits make things difficult; she may as well set up a bed in the construction yard at this rate!"

"Oh but then you'd become oh so lonely." Fouquet teased causing Siesta to blush slightly as she closed down the Holo-map on the computer.

"Er-, moving on! Have you two heard the news?" Siesta asked after recomposing herself.

Both Fouquet and Faravis looked to each other and shrugged. "What news?"

"Apparently the scan beacons we dropped onto the Threshold Island in the Western ocean have been sending back strange readings. It seems like the Threshold is reacting to something."

"An invasion force?" Faravis asked quietly.

Siesta shook her head. "No, the energy is too little to transport anything, and we haven't gotten any sort of signal through it. Louise is likely going to call an inner circle meeting about it when she returns."

"We could just have it without her; she's the only one missing after all." Fouquet said with a snicker.

"We could but there are a few other things I think she wants to meet about."

"I'm guessing the creature sighting by the Nile and the shadow teams you sent into Halkeginia last month are a couple of them?"

"I can't keep a thing hidden from you, can I!" Siesta remarked.

"Sure you can," Fouquet said with a smile. "It just takes a bit of skill that's all."

"Heh, true enough." Siesta said as she let out a sigh. "I just hope nothing changes to drastically, or too soon."

"True enough. It would be annoying to have to deal with another Scrin invasion with only twenty years of preparation."

"Yeah it would. I guess we can only hope for the best."


	2. Prologue 2 - Halkeginia

**Authors note: I likely should have said this in the first chapter, but as it was said in the previous chapter, twenty years have passed, and as such, Original characters will be making appearances. This does not mean however they will take over, but they will be there as many are important, as you'll now see. Enjoy!**

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**Prologue 2 - Halkeginia**

Eleonore de la Vallière stood in the half circle stone room and eyed the class before her, making sure to make eye contact with each and every single student, making them sure of their place. When the class finally became dead silent she stretched her arms and smiled toward them. "It's time for a history quiz!"

The entire class erupted in comments and sighs of how unfair it was and why quiz's sucked, little did they know quizzes helped you remember things better than just reading from a book. Unfortunately for them this quiz was not going to be information in the book though.

"Considering we have been going over Halkeginian ancient history, including the rise of the Brimiric faith, the quiz is going to be on something different, to give you a bit of a rest!"

The class grumbled loudly, an act that only caused Eleonore to be surer of her choice of topic for the quiz.

"The topic will be an event that shook Halkeginia and all the countries around it. The Heretics war!" Eleonore proclaimed loudly, causing the entire classroom to vibrate with muffled conversation as she continued. "The class will pass or fail this quiz together, so make sure you know the answer before putting up your hand, a mistake could lead the entire class to extra classes, or kitchen work with the plebeians!"

Hearing this, the entire class became silent, making sure they could hear the questions as Eleonore spoke them.

"First question then. . . . Explain in simple terms how the Heretics war began."

A moment passed before a short, brown haired girl raised her hand and stood up, the class's attention directing toward her instantly. "Um, the heretics war is said to have begun when the heretic in question, known only as the Prophetess, began spreading false prophecy about the lord Brimir and the way the cultures and countries of Halkeginia were run and organized."

Eleonore nodded her head approvingly. "Not bad. Next question then. What were the major points of the Heretics war?"

No one raised their hands.

"Alright fine then, I'll pick who will answer." Eleonore said as she gazed around the classroom, her gaze falling on a girl with long purple hair done into twin tails. "Mimi De La Tristian, you're up."

Mimi froze for a moment before swallowing hard and standing up. Clearing her throat she began, her quiet voice having trouble reaching the entire room. "Um, the Heretics war was considered to have two parts. The first part was when the heretic prophetess and her forces stormed into Gallia, killing the King of Gallia, Joseph, and destroying the entirety of the Gallian castle. The second part of the war was when the heretic forced all countries to ally with her forces against the strange monsters that came from space that they called Scrin. It is believed that she summoned them to achieve some kind of purpose but it is unknown what that purpose was."

Eleonore nodded once again. "Good but it should also be noted that her forces attacked the elven capitol, forcing them to act as well. It should also be noted they used strange weaponry that is still not understood. Now then, how did the Heretic's War end and what were its effects upon Halkeginia. Marcus answers this one!"

A boy in the back corner with short blond hair suddenly shivered and stood up at attention. "Yes! Um the Heretics War ended with the destruction of the invading monsters as well as the deaths of the Prophetess and her two generals, a woman named Blue Lotus and the infamous thief, Fouquet. The aftermath of the war was that in addition to new leadership for Gallia, all of the countries of Halkeginia have better political standing with one another and some countries are now friendly with the elves."

"You forgot that Albion was destroyed and the remnants of its land off the coast is now covered in death crystal. Minus ten points." Eleonore said causing Marcus to shiver in terror before taking his seat once more. "Now then, we'll continue this quiz tomorrow; I believe you all now have Miss Zerbst's class in the courtyard next. Good luck summoning your familiars!"

Hearing her dismiss them the class of students began packing their bags and heading out of the classroom, except for a blond haired, slightly muscular boy who walked up the back of the classroom and stopped between Mimi and Marcus. "Wow man, your mum really does run you ragged, huh?"

Marcus looked at the boy and sighed. "I just wish she wouldn't pick on us so much, not that you seem to have to worry, Devon."

"Yeah, she ignored you." Mimi added as she finished packing her quill and ink into her bag. "Shall we get down to the courtyard? Miss Zerbst will kill us if were late for summoning our familiars."

"Hahaha, yes she would, and we don't want that!" Devon said loudly as he patted Marcus on the back and threw his bag over his shoulder.

Following him, out the three friends took only a short while before they sat on the cool grass of the courtyard, waiting for their teacher Miss Zerbst to arrive and begin their class. Before anyone could speak up or start a conversation, the impossible to ignore, dark skin and luscious curves of their teacher, Miss Zerbst, could be seen walking calmly across the courtyard toward them, stopping only when in front of them all. "Alright everyone! "Miss Zerbst called gathering what little attention was not already upon her (or her body). "We will now begin the summoning of everyone's familiars. Please remember that this is considered a sacred ritual and do not speak while others are summoning. You wouldn't want to lose focus so don't make other lose focus. Following tradition we will be starting with the lowest born students, so let's begin!"

Devon, Marcus and Mimi joined the class in a short applause as the summoning began. Turtle, Dove, Snake, Parrot, Bear, the list went on as students summoned their familiars, and soon only Marcus, Devon and Mimi remained.

"Looks like I'm next, wish me luck!" Devon said as he stood up and walked over to Miss Zerbst who looked him over before speaking.

"Devon De Gramont, you may summon your familiar, with luck it may surpass your fathers."

Devon nodded and pulled out his wand, pointing it to the magic circle drawn on the grass. "By my family's blood and honour, I summon thee to my side. Serve me in both life and death and let your purpose not falter. Answer my call!" Devon roared, catching Miss Zerbst and all the surrounding students by surprise at how loud his summoning was. Within a second of finishing, the large armoured backside of an armadillo crawled out of the ground in front of him, its shell hard and sleek, and its tail covered in flanged spines. The armadillo shuffled over to him and allowed him to complete the contract.

Sitting back down with Marcus and Mimi the both of them nodded to him as Marcus stood up. "My turn.

"Marcus De la Vallière, you may summon your familiar." Miss Zerbst said quietly without making eye contact. Did she want to say something?

Marcus nodded and looked back at the school, knowing for sure his mother was watching him in one form or another as he turned back to the circle and began chanting quietly. "By my family's name, I call upon you, my fated familiar, to answer my call and appear forth before me. I know no weaknesses and my honour will hold up what my power cannot, so I now call upon you, in the name of the Vallière, come forth!"

As Marcus's words left his lips the air of the courtyard grew gold, and bits of frost began appearing on the blades of grass. Students began getting up to keep themselves warm causing frost to then appear on their hair and shoulders as they did. The grass of the magic circle froze complete solid and out of it, grew a massive spire of pure white ice. The ice then began changing shape and in a few moments had formed a nine foot humanoid shape devoid of any kind of head. The creature stood before him as he completed the contract, noticing that the creature's icy body felt only slightly cool to his lips.

"An Ice Hulk. Not bad, Vallière." Miss Zerbst said approvingly as Mimi stood up and walked to the circle, Marcus having sat back down by the time Miss Zerbst had finishes speaking to him. Seeing Mimi standing before the circle Miss Zerbst smiled. "Little anxious, princess?"

Mimi shook her head rapidly. "No, I'm ready!"

Miss Zerbst smiled at her again; she could easily tell that she was nervous. "Alright Mimi De la Tristian, you may begin when ready!"

Mimi nodded and looked at the magic circle. Her friends had summoned good familiars, and it was her duty as Tristanian royalty to get a good familiar as well. "I am Mimi De la Tristian, princess of Tristania. I call upon you, my fated servant to come forth and bind yourself to me in holy contract. I ask you, no I order you, respond to my contract and appear before me!"

As Mimi finished a small light appeared in the center of the circle and out of it sprouted a small tree made entirely of Opal. Atop it sat a great hawk, its body similarly colored to the opal. Without a second thought the opal hawk hopped off of the tree and landed on Mimi's Shoulder, bending over so she could kiss it on the end of the beak and complete its contract with her.

Miss Zerbst nodded her head and stepped forward as Mimi backed away from the circle and sat down. "Alright everyone, good job summoning your familiars. The rest of today and all of tomorrow are free days for you to get to know your familiars. I hope all goes well for you!"

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"Not a bad summoning at all," Mr. Colbert said as Miss Zerbst came into his office and closed the door behind her.

"They all tried hard, and it would have been embarrassing if any of them had failed." Kirche said as she walked up to Mr. Colbert's desk and hopped up onto it, making sure her legs were visible to him.

Forcing his gaze to not fall on Miss Zerbst's legs Mr. Colbert continued to stare out of the window. "Times like this are when it feels good to be headmaster, though I'm still not sure if I'm cut out for this position."

"Oh, and like I was cut out for taking your old teaching position, Jean?" Kirche said alluringly. "You're doing fine. In these last few years we both have taken to our positions well, you worry too much."

"Maybe, but at least I have reason to, Miss Zerbst." Mr. Colbert said, his tone shifting from happy to nervous.

Kirche scowled and slid off of the desk before walking up beside him, making sure to press up against his side. "I know I've asked you to call me by name when we're in private, Jean. . . . . . Are you worried about the Gilded Cage meeting last week?"

Mr. Colbert nodded shallowly. "Suddenly finding out that Gallian knights caught someone they believe to be a Crystalist after not having seen nor heard of them in almost twenty years is not a good sign."

"It could have just been a straggler holding on to dead ideals. They're gone." Kirche said as she leaned over and planted a kiss on Mr. Colbert's lips, and act he happily returned.

"I hope so. The last thing we need is more of that madness. It would be best if things just stayed how they were." Mr. Colbert managed to say as he and Kirche began exchanging passionate kiss after passionate kiss.

"Indeed, but let's forget about that for a bit, hmmm?" Kirche said as she pushed Mr. Colbert against the window sill, her thighs pressing against his legs, and her breasts against his chest.

Mr. Colbert smiled as his hand ran up Kirche's side. "Yes, lets."


	3. Prologue 3 - The East

**prologue 3 - the east**

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Saito scowled as he looked on from the top of the elven capitol's walls at the caravan of humans that was leaving to the east, back where they had come from. Pushing his blowing hair out his face he continued to glare at the caravan. "Bloody humans."

"That's not very nice, Saito."

Saito turned to see Tiffania standing just to his side behind him, her long elegant priestess robes flowing in the breeze. "Oh Tiffania, I didn't realize you were t-there, sorry."

"I've been with you since the eastern dignitaries left. Was it really necessary to walk along the entire length of the city's wall watching them?" Tiffania asked as she came up beside him and placed her hands on the walls crenellations.

"Yes. There's no telling what kind of treachery humans could be plotting." Saito said very seriously as he glared out at the horizon, the barest fleck of the human convoy still visible.

"Not all humans are bad, Saito. You know that!"

"I still don't trust them"

"And you shouldn't, at least not completely!" came another much older voice from behind them.

Saito and Tiffania turned around to see General Tandria walk up behind them, his face covered in a large content smile.

"Good afternoon, General." Tiffania greeted pleasantly with a slight bow that Tandria returned.

"Good afternoon indeed. But please remember that I acceded that position to Saito. I'm now merely his advisor." Tandria said calmly before turning to Saito. "I take it the meeting with the eastern ambassadors did not go well?"

Saito shook his head. "They wanted heaps of information on our country in exchange for a guarantee of peace, but they did not say even a word about their own country so I told them to only come back when they were more willing to speak as equals."

"Not even where they were from? Who they served?"

"All I got out of them was they're from a place called the Oda Shogunate and that they stated quite happily that they're people have almost completely conquered their country."

Tandria looked at him and nodded." Not a bad call then. The last thing we need is a country of conquerors at our doorstep."

"We already have to deal with that."

Tandria looked at Saito and sighed. "Saito, I'm sure your loving wife here has told you this already many times, but you need to stop being so against the nations of Halkeginia. We are technically allied with three of them now!"

"Only because we saved their rears against those demon summoners! If it wasn't for that they would be jumping on that Brimiric churches kill all the elves bandwagon!"

"Be that as it may Saito, Gallia, Germania, and Tristania are our allies, otherwise our son would not have been sent to Tristania to learn about their culture." Tiffania explained.

Saito scowled and turned around, looking out into the city. "I still don't agree with that decision."

"I know, but Isuka wanted to learn about their culture and their magic's. And it is good for the relations between our countries!"

"I still don't like it." Saito stated. "If Isuka gets hurt by one of those Halkeginians I swear I'll tear down every monument to their vanity I find in a rage as I hunt the one who hurt him!"

"An understandable statement, but I doubt it will come to that." Tandria said calmly before placing a hand on Saito's shoulder. "Come, there is a meeting with the Iskval this evening and I'd hoped to explain to the two of you what's happening.

Saito nodded as Tiffania stepped up beside the two men. "I take it they have settled down without a problem then? They have been having a bit of trouble these last few years."

Tandria nodded. "I'm told they do fine.

"Finally!" Saito exclaimed as he and Tiffania followed Tandria into the city. "Something good happens!"

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-Translated from native Scrin-

"So then, Supervisor Al'vec, what do you make of Planet 3 of Sector 21?

"I believe that the native inhabitant's abilities and the unexpected meeting of higher ranked technology is what caused the downfall of our forces there previously, Overlord."

"Not a bad assumption, but I do not agree."

"May I ask what the Overlord thinks caused the previous foreman's failure?"

"The one named Kane had a presence there, one who had learned under him."

"You believe that is why?"

"Yes, and as such this is why you and I will watch over this invasion personally. We cannot make any mistakes."

"Of course, Overlord, I shall return to preparing the troops."

"As you were. I shall inform you when the invasion is to begin, and it will begin soon enough!"

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Oda Nobunaga looked out upon the city of Kyoto from the balcony of its castle and let a smile slip from his face. His great armies now only needed to conquer the last bastions of resistance and then all of Japan would be under his control. Peace, prosperity and growth would all flourish under his one unified rule, and once Japan was unified, he would cross the mountains and begin unifying the rest of the continent. If his sister, Nona, was successful in creating an alliance with the elves of the west it would make things even easier for him as well. Even if the elves did not agree to an alliance they would not hold out against his forces. Everything was falling into place just as he knew it would.

Looking down to the edge of the city he could see that the excavation his people where working on was going well. The strange metal structure was unlike anything he had seen before. With luck it would be a great weapon granted to him by Amaterasu and Yatagarasu to unify the world under his name.

So lost in thought was Oda Nobunaga though that he did not hear steely whispers all around him, plotting his downfall, and the downfall of living beings in the world, starting with his people.

**End of prologue.**


	4. Act 1 - Ch 1 - The Gates of History open

**Authors note: and now out of the prologue and into the first act. And before we begin I know I should have said this previously, but as this is a twenty year time jump there will be many important OC's. But I'm sure you knew this. Now onto the firth chapter, and our 2 most important OC's!**

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**ACT 1 - Chapter 1 **

**The Gates of History open**

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The wind blew gently, causing the grassland brush to sway and swing as two girls crept through the brush, keeping their presences concealed completely. The two girls were the same height, but could not be more alike, or more different. The first girl had pale skin the same as her parents and held in both hands identical curved blades that were a deep black from the pommel to tip. She shook her head, causing her short cut deep blue, almost black hair to reposition itself away from her face. The second girl was only a bare inch taller than the first, her long green hair flowing vibrantly on the breeze above her dark brown skin. She held a simple metal staff and knelt down in front of a wall of grass, higher than she was tall as she waited for the blue haired girl.

Noticing the blue haired girl step up beside her the green haired girl leaned over till her head was a mere half foot away from the other girls. "If I'm not wrong, once we leave these grasses we have a clear shot to the River Nile. How do you want to do this Emelia?"

Emelia gently placed down one of her two curved blades and rubbed her neck with her free hand, her arm accenting her average, but well-shaped chest. "I'd like to say we take it carefully, but if there's no cover of any kind, what else can we do but make a dash for the Foliage by the river? Any ideas Clarity?"

Clarity nodded as she leaned back and sat down upon the dirt, keeping her left hands grip firmly on her staff as she did. "I run out and you keep watch, covering me in case we encounter anything."

Emelia shook her head angrily. "If I had a Rotary Rifle sure, but all I have is my Shardshot, and it's hardly useful for covering fire." Emelia explained as she pulled out a large black pistol with her spare hand and shook it around frantically before putting it back in its holster.

"Then what do you suggest?" Clarity asked as she leaned back toward Emelia, having had leaned away when she was swinging her pistol around.

Emelia was quiet for many moments before forcing her boots into the soft earth and gripping her sheathed blade's handle with her free hand. "We both take a break for it and run to the river's edge. The Nile has lots of foliage to hide in so even if something sees us we can hide."

"And what if they have flintlocks, or magic?"

"Flintlocks only have one shot, and their easy enough to deflect. It its magi I'm sure we can do something about them, it'll be fine."

Clarity shook her head in exasperation. "Forward as ever huh, just once can we take this carefully?"

Emelia looked at her for a moment before sneering. "But that's no fun."

"Fun or not your mum would be upset if we didn't take this seriously"

Emelia reeled backwards. "Urk, you're right. Fine then we'll do it your way this time Clarity."

"Okay good, so we'll-"

"But you'll be covering me!" Emelia suddenly stated as she gripped her blades by the handles and leapt out of the grass.

Ignoring her half second of shock, Clarity quickly pulled out her own Shardshot and stood up in the grass, allowing just her head to break above it allowing her to see around them. Between them and the river was a herd of Aurochs, a herd that ignored Emelia almost completely as she ran around, over and under them. In less than a minute she was across the expanse of short grass and in the bushes that ran parallel the river Nile. A minute later Emelia's hand poked out from the grass and waved signalling that it was clear. Shaking her head Clarity walked out of the grass, through the pack of grazing Aurochs, and into the grass by the river.

After a few moments of pushing grass and shrub aside Clarity came out of the grass and onto the banks of the River Nile. Along the banks many small lizards and birds frolicked and gathered at the pristine clear blue waters. Deep In the water she could see dozens of fish and water mammals swimming around pleasantly, and all around the river and green trees, shrubs and grasses grew, attracting small insects and rodents. Looking around for a few moments more she spotted Emelia kneeling down at the water's edge, gazing into it intently. Walking over Clarity stood behind Emelia for a few moments before speaking up. "You know standing by the river's edge will attract crocodiles."

"I doubt it." Emelia replied without turning her gaze from the waters before her.

". . . What are you doing anyway?"

"Looking at my reflection."

"Why?"

Hearing this Emelia stood straight up and turned to clarity, throwing her arms to the side as if showing off her black leather pants and jacket covering a simple black shirt. "Look at us!"

Clarity looked at Emelia for a moment and nodded. "Your clothing looks fine."

"That's not what I mean. It's just basic attire, the normal regulation equipment for female Crystalists In the field. . . . . . We're the daughters of inner circle members and yet all we have is basic stuff, we can't even alter out equipment or uniforms!"

Clarity shook her head and heaved a sigh. "This again? If you want to modify your gear why not just ask your mom. And why would we need different equipment when what we have works for us perfectly fine?"

" . . . . . .Sorry. I must be tired."

"Yeah, you blew that completely out of proportion. You must be tired."

". . . yeah . . . I haven't been sleeping well as of late and-"

"Get down!" Clarity suddenly yelled as she tackled Emelia down into a large bush that was behind her.

Before Emelia could say a word Clarity put a hand on her mouth and began making gestures with her free hand, pointing toward the other side of the river. Understanding what she was trying to be told Emelia nodded, causing Clarity to carefully, and silently get off of her. Working fast the two girls reorganized themselves and slowly, but carefully, peered through the bush.

Standing on the Upper bank of the river were a dozen humanoids covered in deep black fur and wearing the absolute barest amount of clothing. Their canine like heads turned and glanced around at their surroundings, scanning it for anything of interest as their humanlike hands gripped various vicious looking black stone weapons. One of the creatures literally began barking orders to the others, its yells sounding like a cross between Halkeginian and a strange growl, and within a minute they were spread across the opposite shore as if looking for something.

Emelia pulled her head back into the bush, and act that Clarity also did a moment after, and looked worried as she spoke. "I don't know what those things are, but do you think they're what we're looking for?"

Clarity shrugged "could be. We haven't seen anything else that could be described as a 'strange creature'."

Emelia nodded and looked away for a moment before turning her gaze back to Clarity. "Um, what do we do now?"

Clarity glanced to both sides of her, her eyes betraying her unsurety. "I don't know. We were to investigate the claim of odd creatures, but beyond that your mum didn't say anything. We have confirmed it, so we could just return to Nexus with our report.

"But . . . . . . . that kind of feels like, running away from them."

Clarity looked to Emelia and sighed. "I know you want to fight whatever they are, but we don't know their capabilities. We'll wait until they leave and then head back to our buggy and to nexus. Okay?"

"Fine" Emelia said as she looked away and began pouting slightly at the loss of combat as Clarity peered through the grass again to watch the strange creatures as they waited for them to leave.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

By the time the sun was scarring the horizon and the skies were turning brilliant orange the creatures had not left the opposite bank and had instead spread themselves out even more, all of them occasionally sniffing at the air. Clarity could only scowl and turn to Emelia who was obviously still itching for a fight. "They don't seem to be leaving; they may know we're here. We'll have to make a break for the river bank and hope they can't catch up to us."

Emelia smiled viciously. "Or we just kill them and be done with it. We could even take a corpse or two back with us for your dad to look at."

Clarity looked to Emelia with a slight glare. "Fine, we'll rush to the bank to get out of here, but if they catch up we'll turn and fight them then, deal?"

Emelia nodded with a grin and gripped her two sheathed blades, ready to draw them at a moment's notice.

Bursting out of the brush and sprinting right to the bank, Clarity looked back to see the strange creatures running right through the river toward them at a terrifying speed. They would be on them before they could climb the bank completely. Seeing this she poked Emelia in the back and the two of them turned around and readied their weapons.

The creatures surrounded and looked at them, as if gauging their danger, with their weapons ready. As they seemed to be ready to strike, one of the creatures stepped forward brandishing a large ax in its left hand. It looked at the two girls for a moment before letting out a growl. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

Clarity and Emelia looked at each other in shock at the creature being able to speak before clarity nodded slightly and stepped forward. "What is it to you creature, I should be asking you that question!"

The creature's lips sneered up its snout." You walk on Iskval lands; you are not welcome here so you must answer our questions."

"Iskval? And by who's command is this land yours?" Clarity asked angrily, upset that the creature believed the lands theirs.

"The pointed eared hairless old ones gave us this land." The creature responded with smile. "But they gave us no knowledge of other hairless creatures. Leave these lands, they are ours!"

Emelia stepped up beside Clarity and leaned over to her ear. "I think its talking about the elves."

"I think your right. And if they are allies of the elves we can't let the information that we exist get back to them." Clarity said quietly in response causing Emelia's face to light up with a grin.

"This land is ours, not yours leave and speak nothing of us or die!" Emelia commanded as she brandished her two curved blades as Clarity spun her staff around a dozen times before holding it beside herself.

The creature stepped back and brandished its axe in both hands. "Only the pointed old ones can guarantee our land, it is not yours, but ours, kill them!"

Hearing the creature say this both Emelia and Clarity leapt into action, quickly jumping away from each other so as to not impede the others movements. Clarity launched herself over half of the creature using her staff as a spring and quickly twirled it around, blocking the first blow sent towards her. Without giving her attacker a second chance she channelled her magic through the staff, and grew large green Blades of Tiberium out of either end of her staff, and with two quick swings sliced the arms off of one of the creatures causing it to howl in pain before falling to the ground unable to stand. Seeing their companion fall the others near it charged at Clarity, raising their weapons high into the sky. Like the first she blocked their strikes easily, and then countered them, her Tiberium topped staff quickly making large holes and cuts in their flesh. After the first five to face her fell to the ground dead or dying, only one remained, and this one was different than the others. Standing before her, the last creature stood almost two head taller than the others and its muscles were plainly visible beneath its thick black fur. It let out a single huff and pulled out large wooden spear, its tip made of some kind of black stone or steel. Lunging forward the creature swung its spear in a wide horizontal arc, forcing Clarity to block it with her own staff. As the spear struck her staff however the creature pulled out a short sword and swung at her with its free hand. Leaping back she looked up to see the creature ready itself to strike again. Clarity smiled to herself, this would be fun!

Emelia smiled as she landed and some of the creatures surrounded her, she had been hoping for a good chance to test her mettle, and now she had one. All the creatures rushed forward to her, all of them brandishing large wood and black stone (or steel) weaponry. With many quick swings of her blades Emelia knocked their strikes away, and after a minute of trying, the creatures stepped back, evidently now worried about her skills. Not one to let her enemies get away, or have chance to change their tactics, Emelia twirled her blades in hand and forced her magic through them, lighting them with vibrant deep red flames and green flecked. The creatures stepped back away from her, their eyes widening with fear, and Emelia liked when that happened. Rushing forward Emelia leapt into the center of their group and swung her blades around herself gracefully, making sure the blades themselves missed her opponents weapons and dug deep into their flesh, cauterizing it as it flew through. By the time the creatures understood what was happening three of them lay in the sand motionless, their fur smoldering silently as Emelia flipped her blades around once more and turned to the remaining three. The three remaining looked at each other with fear before turning their gazes back to Emelia and letting out angry howls, rushing forward as they did. In merely three quick and fluid movements Emelia disarmed and killed the first creature, sending it head way from its shoulders, and with five motions did the same to the second creature. The third creature began pacing around her, as if it was still the predator, and flipped around its two sickle like weapons, as if trying to intimidate her. The creature let out howl and leapt forward bring both of its weapons up in an obvious attempt to make her block, Emelia feigned interest until the lack second and sidestepped the creature a moment before its blades would have struck her, forcing them to strike the sand instead. Not allowing the creature to continue she rushed behind it and swing both of her blades upward, catching the creature's armpits, and forcing its arms to leave its body. The creature howled in pain as it dropped to its knees defeated but Emelia, as if adding insult to injury, walked around the creature and swung her leg at its chest, sending the beaten and broken creature into the river where it would likely drown or be eaten.

Shaking her head to shake the sweat from her hair Emelia looked over to see Clarity fighting the last creature, the one who had actually talked. Walking over as quietly as she could she then leapt forward as its attack was blocked by Clarity, and sunk her blades beep into the creature's shoulder blades. Ripping the blades backwards the creatures shoulder blades cracked and broke away from its skeleton, leaving it howling in pain just before clarity silenced it by impaling its head on the Tiberium spike protruding from her spear. The creature's body slumped and fell to the ground as Clarity pulled her staff from its head. "Is that all of them?"

Emelia smiled. "Of course, the only one alive is armless and currently floating down the river. It'll be eaten by an alligator within the hour I wager!"

Clarity nodded and then shook her head, causing sweat to fly off onto the sand as she spoke. "do you think we should do way with the bodies? They seemed awfully shocked by our skills and my Tiberium staff."

"Yeah, they seemed shocked when i lit my blades on fire." Emelia agreed as she doused the fire coating her blades and sheathed them. "We should probably dump the bodies down the river then?"

"Yeah, we don't want them finding Tiberium here, in case more come."

"Alright, help me then Emelia said as she knelt down and grabbed a creature by the ankles. "These thing may have went down easily but they seem to be mostly muscle, heavy muscle!"

"Alright, let's deal with their bodies and head back to Nexus" Clarity agreed as the two of them went about the deed. Half an hour later the climbed the river bank, and were on their way, unaware of the seriousness of the creatures bodies being put in the river.


	5. Act 1 - Ch 2 -History Returns

**Act 1 Chapter 2**

**History Returns**

* * *

The prophetess, known by her family and those close to her just as Louise, stood at the front of the massive cargo train in a deep stone tunnel. Her black and red top and Skirt outlined her well-shaped feminine form elegantly, and also seemed to exude an aura of power to those she approached. Brushing a lock of her pink and red highlighted hair out of her face she turned and looked behind her at the train.

The underground cargo train between the cities of Nexus and Mirage had been built only five years before, and was the most important connection between the two Crystalist cities. It was a total of four sets of tracks on each side to handle the large size of the cargo platforms they used to transfer equipment and resources between the cities. Each cargo platform was almost fifty meters long and twenty meters wide, and could hold hundreds of tons atop them. The tunnel and rails had been one of the more lucrative projects that the Crystalists had undertaken to connect their two cities, and was by far one of the most used.

The three cars behind her own were full to the brim with boxes of mechanical equipment, fish and similar resources. The only incredibly important thing that was on them, was held in Louise's own head; the current progress of the Crystalists first ocean faring dreadnaught, the Dauntless.

Louise did not desire war with any nation of Halkeginia, and hoped those countries far north of them would never find out about them, but she knew that was almost impossible. With the information their spies brought back from Halkeginia every so often it was obvious that if any country found out about them it would be war, and the Crystalists, while technologically far more advanced, still had significantly less numbers. The Dauntless was the first step to fix this problem, a ship so large it could strike targets dozens of kilometers away. With its main guns and many AA positions no sky ship, whether it be Halkeginian or elven, would stand a chance.

Looking back to the control panel before her Louise tapped it and looked over the information. They were now only a couple kilometres from Nexus, a good thing considering the distance between the two cities was almost two thousand kilometers, and even the fastest cargo train took almost a full day to travel from one to the other.

A minor vibrating in her pocket caused Louise to reach down and pulling it out of her pocket. "Yes?"

"Louise, we have a problem." Siesta's calm voice said through the phone, though it currently had a hint of urgency to it.

"How bad can it be?"

"Our probes on the threshold island, they're picking up massive energy spikes, too great to just be a flux. The threshold is charging up for activation!"

Louise's face turned serious. "How long does Legion guess until it activates?"

"Legion says a matter of minutes, exactly seven and dropping."

Louise looked about and noticed the cargo train slowing down as it entered the station, and promptly ran to its edge and jumped off onto the platform. "I just got off the cargo train; I'll be there in five!"

"Alright, but please hurry!" Siesta said before the call dropped off.

Louise closed her phone and slipped it into her pocket as she began ascending the stairs up out of the underground platform. This was one of the few times that the long dress she had become accustomed to wearing in this time of peace had its difficulties, stairs. Just because the front of the dress was higher than the back and showed off a bit of her lower legs, did not make it any easier to run up stairs without almost killing herself.

Atop the stairs was a massive upper platform, full of cranes and lifts to bring equipment to the surface, and beside it, the main gate. Breaking free of the constraints of the underground Louise took a deep breath as the bright sun shone onto her skin and clothing. It could only last for a moment however as Louise turned and gazed upon the city around her, Nexus, the Crystalists capitol. Running up the stairs and through streets Louise ascended the almost pyramid like city as she headed for its highest point, Nexus Prime, the Crystalists command building and head of government.

Seeing her haste not a single person got in her way, and just as many people quickly vacated the streets allowing her to pass, as her showing haste was a rare thing in the city. Well within her expected time frame, Louise finally came up to the deep red main gate of Nexus Prime, and quickly pushing them open and stepped inside. Less than a minute later Louise walked into the Command and Control Center. The CCC was a large circular room with a massive holographic projector in the center that normally showed a map of all of Kania. Surrounding it where a number of large tables with computers, piles of maps, and short bookcases full of compiled information. Standing in front of the holo computer were those who comprised Louise's inner circle. Fouquet the Adamant Earth, who now held the official title of a general, was well loved and respected by the people for her equal treatment of those around her. Siesta, known as the Blue Lotus, was the one who ran and commanded all of the Crystalists information networks and shadow teams. And Faravis, Fouquet's dark elf husband, was one of the single greatest minds on technology and magic in Nexus besides Louise herself.

"We're just waiting for Legion to clear up the video feed." Siesta said with a smile as Louise stepped up beside her.

Louise nodded. "Looks like we'll have to postpone that meeting for a bit then. Legion, please open the video feed, it doesn't need to be absolutely perfect."

"Very well." came Legion's steely tone as the holographic map of Kania was quickly replaced by a rectangular video feed.

The feed opened up and began showing it's video in real time, though it was slightly fuzzy. The Scrin threshold towered above the probe, darkening the ruins of ancient structures around it, and in the thresholds center, a massive glow grew ever brighter. As they looked on the glow in the thresholds center suddenly began flashing and craft after black craft flew out of the threshold at high speed. Many looking extremely similar to Nod carryalls, bombers and venoms. The last venom through the threshold was quickly blown to pieces by the missile following it through. A second later, dozens of bright yellow craft flew through the threshold and began firing upon the Nod craft. Many of these craft looked like Orca's and Firehawks, and a few looked completely unknown. Finally, as the thresholds glow grew brighter still, a massive flying ship, easily the size of a Scrin Mothership, slipped though and the threshold glow dimmed. The massive ship moved slowly, firing off volleys of fire far ahead of it, and as it flew above the probe, the signal cut out, leaving nothing but a blank feed.

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment, until Louise walked up to the control panel. "Legion, reply the video, stop it half a second before the feed cut out.

Obeying her command the video quickly replayed and stopped right at the end, showing the side of the massive ship, and the word 'Kodiak' across its side beside a large golden logo of an eagle, GDI's logo.

Louise swallowed and turned around to everyone else. "I was once told that the greatest GDI commander in history piloted a craft called the Kodiak. During the second and third Tiberium wars he was responsible for many serious nod losses." Louise stated grimly.

"B-But that means-", Fouquet began.

Louise nodded. "We can only assume that Nod forces from Earth evacuated through the threshold, and were followed by GDI forces."

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Siesta smacked her cheeks lightly and stepped forward a bit. "Then we need to help them, if Nod forces are here we need to contact them!"

Louise nodded. "I agree. Legion, can you make a guess as to the Nod ship's heading.

"Long range scanners have found them. " Legion's tone stated. "Original heading was east toward Halkeginia, now appears to be swinging south, toward Kania's north western tip in an attempt to shake attackers."

"Do we have any patrols in that area?" Faravis spoke up as he began looking over the video the probe sent back on a nearby computer.

"Searching . . . . Affirmative. One scout buggy located in northern Kania, heading toward Mirage at cruising speed of 223km; it appears to have been at the River Nile in north eastern Kania."

Siesta suddenly sighed and placed her hand on the bridge of her nose, garnering everyone's attention unconsciously. "That would be Clarity and Emelia."

"What are they doing in the north?" Louise asked curiously.

"I had them checking up on a strange sighting by the Nile River to keep them from sneaking over to Mirage, but it seems they're trying to sneak a peek at the Dauntless anyway."

"Heh, they're still trying that, huh?" Louise muttered. "No matter, this works well. Siesta, can you call them and inform them of the situation?"

Siesta nodded and bolted out of the room, not saying a word nor making a sound as she disappeared. If anyone else was in the room they would have thought she ha disappeared.

"If they were under attack they could have wounded." Fouquet added.

"Yeah you're right. Can you prepare some forces in case of problems and prepare the medical groups to take people in the city."

"I'm on it. I'll even have them prepared to fix people on the move if I have to follow them out." Fouquet stated as she ran off.

"This video might have some clues to it," Faravis suddenly said, not turning his gaze away from his screen. "I'll look over it and see what I can discern."

"Glad to hear it. . . . I'll be in the Tacitus store."

"Going to try to access it again?"

"Yes, there's something I want to check out."


	6. Act 1 - Ch 3 - Messiah

**Author note : and now the chapter people have been waiting for since emissary.**

* * *

**Act 1 - Chapter 3**

**Messiah.**

* * *

"Ugh. Why did you have to insist to having the buggy parked so far away?" Emelia moaned as she hung her head over the edge of the windowless door.

Clarity looked over from the driver seat where she sat and sighed as she saw what Emelia was doing. "I insisted in case we found something more dangerous so it wouldn't have found our ride. Its standard protocol and you know that."

"Ugh, I know but, ugh." Emelia continued to moan as she dangled her arms out of the buggy along with her head.

"Don't do that, Emelia," Clarity said after a moment. "If you get hit by something it'll hurt like hell. Worst case it'll kill you, and then your parents will kill me."

"Only if your parents don't kill you first!" Emelia said with a grin as she dragged herself back into the buggy and flipped on the screen in front of her, bringing up a map of Kania. "It'll be at least another nine hours until we get to Mirage. Why the heck did my mom have to make it so far away?"

"Because a port city has to be near water."

"I know that but I still think she could have made it further north up the coastline instead of almost directly west of Nexus!"

"Then the Halkeginian navy could possibly see it. A small chance, but still a chance." Clarity explained calmly as the buggy flew over a small hill and landed back on the ground with a lurch.

"I know, but—ah, never mind!" Emelia cried out in anger and embarrassment as she pulled out her Shardshot and began fiddling with its chambers.

"Must you do that? You'll break your gun and- aw crap!"

"Yes I must, it keeps me occupied. And what's wrong?" Emelia asked as she closed her Shardshot and placed it back into its holster on her belt.

"We're almost out of fuel. We'll need to find a Tib Spike and refuel. Any around?"

Emelia jumped up and stood on her chair as she peered out at the horizon, using only a hand on the bar in front of her to stop herself from falling out of the buggy. "I think there's . . . . Yes I see one just a bit northwest of us, it should be within reach!" Emelia called as she pointed in the direction of the spike before dropping back onto her seat with a smile.

Clarity smiled upon hearing the news and turned the buggy to target their new objective. "Was it a Red spike?"

"I, uh, couldn't tell . . . . . oh hell I hope it's a red one, I really don't want to tire myself out just to get a couple kilograms of red Tib!"

Clarity merely smiled vindictively as the buggy came over a hill, granting both of them clear sight of the Tiberium spike in the ground and the clearing around it.

Tiberium Spikes were a Technology from Nod's origin world of Earth, and worked by pulling Tiberium in the ground toward it and then breaking it down to be used. When the prophetess pulled their plans out of Legion's databanks however, she and Clarity's father Faravis, made some adjustments to them. The adjustment caused the Tiberium connected to the spikes to drain metals and minerals at lower rates, but also caused the original material to regenerate itself, creating a nearly infinite amount of resources. Though their gathering was slow and trucks had to come out to collect their reserves every few weeks.

Driving up beside the Tib Spike both Clarity and Emelia let out sighs of relief as they saw the Large Red Crystals of Tiberium around it. Jumping out of the buggy and drawing one of her swords Emelia swung it at the nearest crystal and then twisted her blade, breaking off a large chunk of red Tiberium that landed at her feet. Picking it up and walking over to the buggies back she found Clarity had already opened the compartment and smiled. "Thank goodness for power spikes huh?"

"Yeah, but really not having them would be counterproductive, especially since everything we use is powered by Red Tib."Clarity stated as Emelia collected and dropped the shares of red Tib into the buggies power compartment and closed it.

"Yeah I guess so. Aren't like half of all Tiberium spikes for creating Red Tib anyway?"

"Yes, you should know this! This is why your folks are always angry with you!"

"They're not angry just-," Emelia began to argue until the sound of a radio angrily wailing caught both their attentions.

Rushing over to the seats of the buggy Clarity grabbed the Radio and clicked it on, "Yes, hello?"

"Clarity, good! I need you and my daughter to do something for us."

Both Emelia and Clarity's faced became cold as they heard Siesta's voice through the radio. Did she know they had been planning to sneak over to Mirage? "Um, okay. Do you want to talk to Emelia instead or-," Clarity began, gaining an angry glare from Emelia as she did.

"No that's fine. We need you both to go to Kania's north western edge and look for crashed ships, specifically, carryalls, venoms and vertigo's."

Both Emelia and Clarity looked at each other for a moment with looks of confusion and worry on their faces. "D-did my mum order an attack on Halkeginia or-?"

"Of course not Clarity. The Scrin threshold went active about half an hour ago and both Nod and GDI Forces from Earth came through. We need you to find those Nod forces and see how many survived and then call us back with a damage assessment so we can react accordingly."

Both Emelia and Clarity's faces lit up with instant interest. "Nod forces? From the origin world, from Earth?" Clarity asked carefully, trying to and failing to hide her sudden excitement.

Siesta did not answer right away, causing both girls to suddenly worry, until she finally answered. "Yes. If there are survivors, and we think there will be if they landed safely, remember you are the daughters of inner circle members, please act accordingly. And yes, I'm directing that to you, Emelia!"

Emelia shrunk down beside the buggy as Clarity took the receiver closer to her mouth. "Uh, Emelia is grabbing some Tib for the buggy. She's not here at the moment." Clarity lied.

"Do you think I believe that, Clarity?" Siesta asked. "Both of you get going already. This is important, okay?"

"Of course. We'll be one the way as soon as Emelia returns with that crystal." Clarity said before quickly reaching over and turning off the radio before looking to Emelia. "What did you do to piss your mum off so badly, Emelia?"

Emelia shrugged as she pulled herself up and into the Buggy. "I don't know, but I think mum knew we were trying to get to Mirage."

"You think!" Clarity said with a sigh as she set the buggy in gear. "Let's get going then, you heard your mum."

"Yeah. On the upside we're really close to the northwestern edge!"

Clarity smiled and nodded in agreement as she stepped on the gas causing the buggy to lurch forward, its speed increasing by the second until it was around 250KM and they sped across the grasslands of northern Kania.

The grasslands of northern Kania were the easiest area of the continent to traverse. With only sparse trees, wide and shallow rivers that twisted around, and grass as far as the eye could see; it was an easy area to see things on the horizon, but a hard place to see individuals hidden in the grass. Luckily for them, smoke signalled their objective, and almost four hours later Clarity and Emelia were standing atop a hill and looking down, a massive number of both broken and unbroken Nod aircraft lying on the plains below them.

" . . . . Shall we take a look?" Emelia asked after almost a full minute of silence.

Clarity shook her head. "Don't look around, but I noticed a couple people in the grass. They likely think they have us surrounded." Clarity whispered.

Emelia turned her head to Clarity and looked at her with a 'seriously' look. "I saw them too. They look like shadows, but they're really bad at staying hidden."

"It's not that they are bad, Emelia," Clarity said as she looked to Emelia and then back at the sight below them, "it's that we were given shadow training by your mum, and combat training from both our moms."

Emelia opened her mouth to speak but instead looked back at the ships before them again. "Okay, you've got a point, we're well trained. Are we going to go check out those ships or not? It looks like that central carryall is in rough shape, they could have wounded."

Clarity was quiet for a minute before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine, but we take this slowly and carefully. We don't know how anyone will react to us, but be ready to have to book it if necessary, alright?"

Emelia smiled and placed both her hands on the hilts of her sheathed swords. "Alright. Let's go say hi."

Clarity nodded as the two of them began to slowly walk toward the landed and crashed ships. As they walked down the hill they could see many people in the grasses around them, all of them wearing black plate, and carrying large caliber pistols. Definitely shadow teams. The shadows that followed them did not attack in any way, merely followed them. They were either under orders, or saw the similarity in Emelia and Clarity's clothing to their own. Whatever the reason they did not come out of the bushes until after Emelia and Clarity neared one of the venoms. Then bursting from the grass behind them the shadows all pointed their guns to the girls. At the same time, many men and women popped out from behind the venom craft, aiming rotary rifles at them with steel in their eyes. No one moved for many moments, the Nod sliders unsure how to react to the situation, and Clarity and Emelia giving them time to see their clothing and make the correct assumptions.

Finely, unable to stand the silence any longer Emelia stepped forward and smiled. "We heard you all had a little problem. Need help?"

A young man stepped forward and pointed his rotary rifle to Emelia's head, the end of the barrel a mere inch from her nose." Who the hell are you two and where did you come from?"

Emelia let the rotary rifle hang there for only a moment, allowing the soldier to let a feeling of power sink in. Then she swatted the barrel away, wrenched the gun out of his hands and drew one of her blades, pressing its edge to his throat with a smile. "Now, I know I was being nice, but apparently we need to try this again!" Emelia stated, her face suddenly becoming cold and steely. "I am Emelia Vallière, daughter of Louise Vallière, Prophetess of the Crystalists and Third rank commando of the Crystalist special operations. You will bring me to see your leader, now!"

Not a single person moved for a moment until Clarity shook her head in exasperation and stepped forward. "We're Nod forces native to this land." Clarity explained. "We were sent to find you and see what happened."

"Oh, like we are going to believe that!" the man pinned by Emelia said before her blade pressed against his neck ever so slightly harder.

"Shut it, we are!" Emelia said angrily as she shook her shoulder causing the Crystalist logo on it to shake about.

"I don't recognize that symbol. You both are just-," another soldier began before he was loudly interrupted by a new voice.

"What is going on here? Report!" a man yelled as he walked into view from behind the nearby venom craft. The man looked easily in his fifties or sixties, and had a head of unkempt short brown hair. He was well built and looked in good shape regardless of his age and the vest he wore left his large arms completely uncovered.

"G-General Ajay, sir! We caught these two snooping around. We think they're spies for GDI!" a soldier said as he saluted the old man.

Ajay walked past the soldier and looked at Clarity and Emelia, his gaze stopping on Emelia. "You look familiar," Ajay muttered to himself for a moment. "Please release my soldier. Who are you, girl?"

Emelia looked to Clarity who gave her a quick nod, and pushed the soldier away, sliding her blade back into its sheathe and dropping the man's rotary rifle to the ground. "My name is Emelia Vallière, daughter of the Prophetess, and Third Ranked Commando of the Crystalist special operations forces."

Ajay raised an eyebrow as he heard the girl's family name. "Vallière? Is your mother perhaps, named Louise?"

Emelia nodded. "Yes, why?"

Ajay smiled. "Alright then, that explains everything. Would the two of you please come with me. We have much to discuss and there's someone you should meet."

Emelia and Clarity looked to each other for a moment as Clarity stepped up beside Emelia. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"Because, I knew Louise long ago." Ajay stated as he turned his gaze to his troops and scowled. "If these girls introduced themselves to you then you should have recognize at least this girl's family name. Brush up on your history when you have a chance and get back to work!"

The soldiers darted away immediately, leaving Emelia and Clarity alone with Ajay as he turned around and waved his arm. "C'mon, this way."

Clarity and Emelia stepped up on either side of Ajay as they followed him, their muscles tense and ready to react should things turn sour. Ajay led them further into the array of landed and crashed Nod ships and toward the carryall that sat in the center. The crafts around them where covered in dents, scrapes, and burn markings, while many of the crashed crafts were smoldering wrecks with the telling signs of rocket and bullet holes upon them; a few even had dead bodies sticking out of them or lying inside of them. "Why have you not dealt with your dead yet?" Clarity asked solemnly as they walked.

Ajay looked to him and shook his head. "We only landed, and crashed, a few hours ago. Many of our ships should have broken apart sooner, but their pilots forced them past their limits to find land. We're still tallying who is dead and alive while our next move is decided. Your coming will likely change the possibilities."

"And why is that?" Clarity asked, slightly irked that he was taking so long to answer.

"Because of this girl's name." Ajay said as he gestured to Emelia, a gesture that made her scowl in curiosity. "What is your name by the way, girl?"

"Clarity. Second Rank Commando of the Crystalists special operations division." Clarity said, leaving out her family name, and the names of her parents.

Ajay nodded as he stopped in front of the back of the carryall, which had a large piece of cloth strung from it, blocking view of what was inside. "Stay here." Ajay ordered as he slipped inside the carryall, making sure to push the cloth back to where it had been. Almost immediately both girls could hear Ajay speaking with another man, but their hushed tones and whispers did not penetrate the cloth in front of them. After a few moments of incoherent muttering, mumbling and whispering, and a few more moments of silence, Ajay's voice pierced the silence once more. "Enter."

Emelia and Clarity looked at each other and simultaneously nodded pushing the cloth out of their way and entering the carryall together. As the cloth fell back behind them they found the inside of the carryall in a shape they did not expect. The walls had their plating taken off; revealing large quantities of cabling and insulation, and many of the wires had been pulled out of the walls and were lying across the floor. A few of the cables were connected to what appeared to have been the carryalls main control panel that now sat on a chair, and had a small, broke hologram being shown above it; a small hologram of the area around the crashed and landed ships. Ajay himself sat on a section of seating that did not have cabling lying across it, and just behind him, standing beside the makeshift hologram, was a man. The man stood tall, easily six feet tall, and was completely bald. He looked to them and smiled warmly. "You do indeed look a lot like your mother. Emelia, was it?"

Emelia nodded. "Yes, how do you know my mother?"

The bald man let out a quick chuckle. "Because my dear, I trained her."

"Wait, if you trained her, then-", Clarity began before being cut off.

"Indeed, but allow me to introduce myself correctly, girls." the man said softly. "My name is Kane, the Head of The Brotherhood of Nod."


	7. Act 1 - Ch 4 - Familiar of crystal

**Act 1 - Chapter 4**

**Familiar of crystal**

* * *

"Wait, as in the prophet? The Messiah? The Kane!?" Clarity asked in shock, not entirely believing what was just said. Emelia merely stood there in dazed shock.

Kane stood there and nodded. "Yes, those are names I have been called. I did not quite catch your name however, Miss. May I know it?"

Clarity looked at Kane for a moment before realizing what he meant and bowing slightly. "Clarity, daughter of Fouquet the Adamant Earth."

"A good name, your parents chose well." Kane said calmly, as he stepped back and placed a hand on the makeshift hologram projector. "But tell me, how did you find us here? Our pilots came in this direction specifically because our long range scanners did not pick up any human life signs."

Clarity looked to Emelia and nudged her slightly in the arm, bringing her out of her shocked stupor. "Oh, um, sorry. My mom wanted to make sure Nexus would be safe if the Halkeginian technology advanced or if the Scrin appeared again, so she had our stealth spikes altered so that they could block all form of scanning equipment unless they had our specific bypass code." Emelia explained quickly, unsure about what she should be explaining in detail and what she could leave out."

Kane nodded for a moment before looking to Emelia. "I could ask much about what you have said, but I shall leave it to Louise herself to explain. What I will ask is this, what is Nexus?"

"Nexus is our . . . city, one of the two we have." Clarity said.

Kane looked to Ajay and smiled, "They have not just one, but two entire cities all their own. I'm rather envious, actually."

"Yeah, how safe are they?" Ajay asked quickly.

"Um, no other cultures have found us really, and we keep a good watch on our borders." Clarity said carefully, still not entirely sure how she should be acting.

"I see. That is good news indeed. How far away is it?" Ajay asked quickly as he grimly looked past the girl at the doorway behind them, "A lot of people are wounded, and we haven't the supplies to keep them stable for long."

Emelia nodded as a smile crossed her face. "That's what mom sent us to do actually! Nexus is just south of here."

Clarity nodded in agreement, "It's only about one hundred kilometers away. How many vehicles are capable of still being used?"

Ajay shook his head angrily. "Not enough. All of our Vertigos were shot down by Fire Hawks, and the few Venoms that can fly can only carry a couple people. We have a few raider buggies that were in some of the carryalls, but not enough and none of the carryall's can fly; if they could we wouldn't be here."

"Indeed, what Ajay says is true. If even just three of the nine carryalls could fly we would be able to get just our people moving." Kane added calmly as he moved the hologram around in his hands, doing some basic calculation on it.

"Hmm, then let's use Kalakros then!" Clarity said, looking to Emelia as she did.

Emelia eyes lit up with joy. "Oh hell yes, that could work. If we cut the carryalls up we could turn them into large metal sleds!"

"You mind letting us in on what you girls have thought of?" Ajay asked, stopping Emelia and Clarity form continuing on their own.

"Oh right," Clarity said meekly as she stepped up to the hologram projector. "May I?"

Kane nodded and stepped back, allowing Clarity to bring up a hologram of a carryall as she spoke. "If we take apart the carryalls we can use the tops and bottoms of their hollowed out hulls as large land sleds. They should easily be able to carry all of the people and important equipment, though the ride may be a bit bumpy."

"Alright, but how do you plan to move them?" Ajay asked as he placed his hands on his knees. "The average weight of a carryall is many tons, even with just the hull, it will be very heavy. We can't just push them!"

"And we won't push them, we'll pull them, or Emelia's familiar will!"

Both Kane and Ajay looked at each other before looking back at the two girls. "Her familiar?" Ajay asked carefully.

Emelia grinned. "Oh, he can pull it alright. My familiar is the strongest one in all of Nexus."

"That is not what I meant." Ajay said simply.

"Don't worry about it Ajay. We shall trust the plan these girl have come up with." Kane said as he walked past Ajay and the girls and moved to the doorway. "Come, we must inform every one of the plan, and what awaits us.

Minutes later Kane stood atop the highest angled carryall, visible to all around. Down from him on the carryalls inactive turbine Clarity and Emelia carefully stood, waiting for what Kane was doing. As the masses of Nod before them, almost 500 strong, became quiet as Kane raised his hands to the sky, garnering their attention.

"Brothers! Sisters! Children of Nod! We are here in this land, chased here by GDI's failings and blindness, dropped into this land we thought unknown. But this land is not unknown to us, and knows the touch of Nod already! Many of you know the story of the third Tiberium war years ago, and many know and have met the commando that joined us in that war, our great sister, Louise Vallière, who left us to save the world she hailed from. This is her world! This is her world and she is here working to save it from the idiocy and fallacy of those like GDI. Here, her people, calling themselves Crystalists in honor of the beautiful crystal, have built a land for themselves, a country to call their own!"

Roars of interest, happiness, and intrigue erupted form the masses of people as Kane took a moment to catch his breath, to allow him to continue his grand speech.

"Louise's own daughter stands here with us and can bring us to the city's safety, but we must first get there! To do this a plan has been forged! The carryalls will be dismantled and made into large land sleds, then shall be dragged to the city. This may sound strange to you, but as many of you know Louise herself held a strange power, and her daughter does as well! Safety is near, but we must continue to work toward it, and then and only then may we begin to work to undo what GDI has wrought! Peace through power!"

"Peace through power!" the masses of Nod called as they immediately went to work. Some went back to tend and move the wounded, other began tearing the excess electronics out of carryalls, and a few began grabbing what few torches they had and began cutting into carryalls; but everyone went to work immediately, all of them knowing what they could do to help with their ability.

Kane looked down at Clarity and Emelia as Ajay ran off to help with something. "Can I ask you both to assist as well? If you have ways to cut the carryalls, we likely need it."

"No problem! I'll tear into them like their paper!" Emelia stated as she leapt off the carry all and ran over to the nearest one that was being dismantled, a look of sheer pleasure plastering her face.

Clarity shook her head and looked to Kane. "Unfortunately, my weapon cannot cut metal cleanly or easily. I shall help move the wounded."

"Thank you. Clarity. With luck, I will be able to meet both your parents, and thank them for sending you to help.

"I know so." Clarity said a she dropped own off the carryall, following the direction that Ajay had taken not a minute before.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Move over boys, those little torches can't beat my blades!" Emelia called as she walked up to a group of Nod soldiers grumbling over their blowtorch.

"And you are . . . . . . Louise's daughter perhaps?" the oldest Nod soldier asked as he looked to Emelia.

Emelia smiled as she pulled out both of her blades, lighting them with frightful red flames as they left their sheaths. "Yes. Now move aside and let me show you what Crystalist magic can do!" Emelia said as she walked past the men and swing both her blades down at the connection to a torn rotor blade that protruded from the carryall. Her blades met no resistance as they slid through the metal, and half a second later the rotor dropped to the ground, the cut spot glowing like molten metal.

"Whoa, that thing must be insanely hot, how are you holding that!" one young soldier asked in astonishment.

Emelia grinned back at them and answered simply as she plunged the blade into the side of the carryall and began walking around it. "Magic!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hearing a heavy crash from the center of the area Clarity looked over to see Emelia leaping around and cutting entire sections of unneeded metal off of carryalls, and could also see a bunch of soldiers pulling the top off of one that she had likely already cut.

"You're friend seems quiet energetic," Ajay stated casually as he placed a first aid kit beside Clarity and began changing the bandages of a wounded soldier behind her.

Clarity nodded as she looked at the soldier before her and began changing his now soaked bandages as she spoke. "Yes, that would be the words to describe Emelia. She's very energetic, dislikes not doing things, and is one of the best combatants in Nexus, though she doesn't have much foresight."

Ajay let out a short laugh. "Yeah, seeing that I have a hard time believing she's Louise's daughter. Though I have trouble believing she has a daughter honestly."

"Why is that?"

"I knew Louise during the third Tib war. She seemed always unsure of herself and her actions despite the fact that she initially acted on her emotions and impulses. She was very skilled, but her lack of experience showed through easily, and she was constantly worried about her home."

Clarity was quiet for many moments before nodding to herself. "That's, kind of strange to hear considering how Emelia's mom acts. She's so dignified and powerful, and always seems to know what to do."

"That sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing that." Ajay said with a light chuckle. "On the other hand, you seem far more calm, and cool than your friend."

"I, that's . . . . . . my mother was rather strict, and my father is very analytical. I guess they rubbed off on me. I overthink things sometimes though." Clarity said quietly.

"Sometimes that is what makes a pair of people good. People that can be completely different can work great together under stress, as the can pick up the slack of the other."

"I guess so . . . . . either way we should hurry up re-bandaging these people," Clarity quickly said to end the conversation. "Knowing Emelia, she'll be done cutting everything up quickly."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three hours later Kane, Ajay, Clarity and Emelia stood on a hill and looked as almost everyone was on the long metal sleds that used to be carryalls, all of them cut and smoothed so that they were safe to be on.

"Impressive, that this could be done so fast. But how will they be moved? You said your familiar would do it?" Kane asked Emelia calmly

"Yep, I'll call him. Make sure to have all of those cables and wires we saved ready so his tail can grab it." Emelia said as she walked further up the hill. Standing on the hill Emelia looked down to see Clarity, Kane and Ajay check the cabling, and then get onto the closest sled themselves. Everything was ready.

Cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders to relief her tense muscles Emelia took out a small shard of red Tiberium and held it in her hand. Unlike her parents whose familiars were always with them in some way, she let hers roam around Kania as it wanted, and could call him at a moment's notice. The primary reason for this though wasn't that she didn't want him near, it was because he was simply too big to be anywhere in the city.

Kissing the shard of red Tib Emelia threw it onto the ground a dozen meters away from her and let out a whistle. "Kalakros, we have work to do!"

For a moment nothing happened and everyone on the sleds began to become worried, then the constant wind that had been blowing for the past hour abruptly cut out completely. The ground began shaking slightly as small rocks and boulders began slipping down the nearby hills. Then as the vibrations died down, massive towers of Red Tiberium shot up out of the hill near Emelia, throwing rock and dirt in every direction as they came out with the force of rockets. As each spire of red Tib stopped moving it shattered into pieces, the shards then littering the ground and slowly gathering in front of Emelia, glowing vibrantly. The shards gathered into three piles before her, then sunk into the ground, leaving the landscape battered, yet deathly silent. Blasting apart the earth before Emelia a massive creature burst out of the ground. As large as a Redeemer, the creature shook dirt off of its body as its great tail rose up high into the sky. The creature was a scorpion, it's carapace as black as Nod steel and it's eyes as red primordial flame. It's claws were massive and seemed to be made entirely of Red Tiberium, and like the claws it tail as well was made of red Tiberium, light filtering through it and illuminating the area around it in a red glow. Its red Tiberium tipped legs crashed forward as it took a few steps toward Emelia, stopping with its head just in front of her.

Emelia smiled and caressed Kalakros's mandibles. "Good boy."

"That, what is that!" Ajay said in shock as he looked up from the sled. "It's bigger than an avatar!"

"As big as a Redeemer I would say. It is an amazing specimen." Kane added as he looked at Emelia's familiar with ever increasing interest.

"Kalakros is the biggest familiar in Nexus," Clarity explained, "It is also the largest Tiberium evolved creature in Kania, no other Tiberium stalker has ever reached even half its size."

"A Tiberium stalker? Is that what it is called?" Kane asked as he looked to Clarity and then back to the hill as Emelia climbed onto Kalakros's back.

Clarity nodded. "Yeah, Tiberium infused scorpion have a habit of becoming as large as trucks, and wolves and cats end up being large Tiberium fiends. Kalakros however, is different from other Tiberium species, as instead of naturally generating green Tib for its body, he generates red. It still has my father confused as to why, but he believes it's because of Emelia's blood."

"Because she is Louise's daughter, I see." Kane said to himself as Emelia and Kalakros lumbered own the hill and flipped the various wires and cords around Kalakros's tail.

"Hold on everybody!" Emelia called from atop Kalakros's back, "we're going to get pretty fast!"

"How fast exactly is she meaning?" Ajay asked as Kalakros began moving forward, and the sleds with him.

Clarity dropped to her knees and grabbed her staff, stabbing one end into the sled and gripping it tightly. "Kalakros has past buggies, bikes, Tib fiends and even venom aircraft. We've clocked him at a top speed of almost 200 kilometers an hour, though I hope Emelia goes slower to compensate for the sleds."

"Hold on and don't let go! Don't let anyone fall off!" Ajay yelled as the sleds began to pick up speed behind Kalakros; it was going to be a very bumpy, and very fast trip.


	8. Act 1 - Ch 5 - Long Awaited meeting

**Act 1 - Chapter 5  
**

**Awaited meeting  
**

* * *

Siesta walked through the halls of Nexus with a single place in mind, and once there, opened the door. The Tacitus Store was the common name for the large domelike room that held the Tacitus they had liberated from the elves years before, but only Louise, Fouquet, Faravis and herself knew what the room was truly for. Accessing the Tacitus with a person's mind and their own willpower, accessing the greatest store of information on any country, continent or world.

The inside of the Tacitus store was covered on all sides by screens, monitors that had a direct link to the earliest satellite that they had thrown into orbit above the planet, yet was one of the most useful. By directly connecting each individual monitor with a corresponding camera on the satellite, the monitors on the dome and the floor would then project what was around the satellite, giving the feeling of standing in space while anyone accessed the Tacitus.

At first, Siesta had thought it was a pointless thing to do, but when Louise explained it to her in detail, it made perfect sense. As the Tacitus was a Scrin databank, without the appropriate technology and knowledge it was difficult to access; sometimes completely unresponsive and at the worst of times highly volatile, it was both useful and dangerous. By keeping it in a room that could imitate the space around their own planet, it caused the Tacitus to stay active, but not be volatile. Once they had learned how to access it safely, doing so became a common event, though more so for Louise and Faravis.

The Tacitus store was active, the dome showing the stars and moon, and the floor showing the world below. In the center of the room with both hands on the Tacitus was Louise, her eyes closed, but the red accents in her hair glowing as brightly as the Tacitus itself did. As Siesta stepped up to Louise's side, both her hair and the Tacitus dimmed down until neither glowed, and she opened her eyes; looking to Siesta with a smile. "Did something happen, Siesta?"

Siesta nodded, "Emelia and Clarity have returned, with all of the surviving Nod forces from Earth that they found it looks like."

"That's good. How did they get them all here so fast? I was expecting they'd just radio us for a pickup or to tell us what they found."

Siesta nodded and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "You won't believe how they did it. I didn't get a good look, but it' pretty impressive. Shall we?"

Louise nodded as she and Siesta left the Tacitus Store and walked down the halls of nexus. "Have you spoken with their leader then? Do we know who leads them?"

Siesta shook her head. "I didn't go down to see. I came right up to tell you and let Fouquet deal with it. From how much her people were moving around, I figure they have a lot of wounded.

"I see. Then we should hurry and see what can be done." Louise said as the two of them threw open of Nexus prime and stepped out into the city. Far below them in the courtyard at the city's main gate were an insane number of people and large battered metal plates, each as large as a carryall, and just to the side, the massive figure of Kalakros, Emelia's familiar. "She . . . . Cut apart the carryalls, and dragged them?" Louise asked in disbelief at the scene.

"Yeah, that's what it seems like. I don't know if it was Emelia or Clarity that came up with the idea, but it's not bad." Siesta admitted as the two of them began walking down the stairs to the main city, and began walking through it.

"Yeah , but depending on how fast she went, some of their wounded could be even worse from the vibrations, or from being flung off. Emelia isn't exactly one for taking things slowly."

Siesta snickered to herself, making Louise look to her.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just that you had some similar moments when you were her age. We both did." Siesta said, causing Louise to blush slightly, but only for a second.

"I- be that as it may, she should've called us to send in evac troops, or at least chosen a safer way to transport people." Louise stated as the two of them finally made it to the courtyard in front of the main gate. "Let's go see who their leader is."

"Let's!"

All over the courtyard were Nod forces, those with Crystalist badges on their shoulders, and the other Nod soldiers, many of whom were being put onto stretchers or being helped to the nearby medical tents that Fouquet's contingents were in the midst of setting up. Walking past some Nod soldiers kitted out like pilots Siesta and Louise caught sight of Emelia, Clarity, and Kalakros near the edge of the courtyard. Spotting them, both Clarity and Emelia ran up to Louise and Siesta, smiled on their faces.

"So, it looks like it went well enough, though I have half a mind to complain about how you brought them here." Louise said to Clarity and Emelia, making their smiling faces slightly more somber.

"Err, well, slicing up their carryalls into sleds seemed like the quickest way to get them back!" Emelia explained suddenly very uncomfortable about having to explain their thoughts when the plan had been so readily accepted before.

"Don't let it worry you too much, you both did very well. Can you show who is the leader of these Nod forces?" Siesta said.

"That will not be necessary, " Kane said as he walked around a makeshift metal sled that had been a carryall, and stood in front of the four girls with Ajay coming up behind him, " for we are already here!"

Louise looked at Kane and Ajay for a good minute without saying a word, the only thing her body could do was blink at what she saw before her. A slight nudge from Siesta caused her to shake her head and regain control, realizing what was before her, as not a mirage or hallucination. "K-Kane . . .A-Ajay?"

Both Kane and Ajay smiled, though Ajay more so for being recognized. In the years since they had seen each other he had aged quite a bit, "Glad to see you recognize me."

Kane nodded in agreement. "It is good to see you Louise. I see you have been doing well for-," Kane began, before the sudden thud of Louise stepping forward and hugging him caught him completely off guard.

Louise hugged him for only a second before letting go of him and talking a step back. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

Kane let out a short, but hearty laugh and placed a hand on Louise's shoulder. "I don't think it was that uncalled for. It has been much time since we last spoke. It looks like you've done what you set out to do though!"

Hearing those words Louise shook her head. "Not really, we've only done a small portion of what I intend to do, but damn Ajay, you got old!"

Ajay scowled at Louise and then chuckled. "Yeah, well, that's what happens. I could say the same for you. Though the better phrase would be damn you got big!" Ajay exclaimed as he looked both at Louise's height, and her shapely, curved body.

"I know which you're meaning more, but I'll forgive it for now." Louise said, squinting at Ajay slightly before turning her gaze to Clarity and Emelia. "I know you two just got back, but can you help Fouquet with the wounded?"

"Okay, mom!" Emelia said as she and Clarity dashed off into the crowds of people.

"And get Kalakros out of here!" Louise yelled after Emelia before shaking her head, "I'm sorry she put you through that!"

Kane looked at the carryall shells that Louise gestured to and raised a hand slightly. "It was a bit rough, but it got the job done. It was a well thought out plan, honestly. Emelia said she was your daughter, yes?"

Louise nodded as Siesta stepped up beside her, "Yes. But, let's do some introductions first. Siesta, this is the prophet Kane and Ajay, a very skilled general from the badge on his shoulder!"

"Oh, you actually noticed. I'm relived I wouldn't have to explain!" Ajay said slyly as he bowed to Siesta, gazing at her body and her Kunoichi uniform while he did.

"And this is Siesta, the Blue Lotus. My second in command, a member of my own inner circle, and my wife." Louise stated proudly, waiting for their inevitable reactions.

"I see. Then both you and she are Emelia's parents?" Kane asked, taking the information far better than Ajay, who was staring at Louise and Siesta in confused shock.

Siesta nodded. "That's right. We both are Emelia's parents, and please stop ogling me." Siesta said to Ajay, causing him to look away and cough to himself

"Then , uh, you adopted them, I'm assuming? Ajay said as he looked completely away from Siesta.

Siesta shook her head and smiled at Ajay. "No. She's biologically ours in every way and form, though she took on Louise's attitude."

"But then how-?"

"Girls need their secrets!" Siesta said simply to Ajay before turning to Louise. "I don't feel like playing catch up, so I'll tell Fouquet about the situation, and get more info from her while you talk."

"Alright, we'll likely be the main intelligence room." Louise said as Siesta nodded and walked off, leaving Louise alone with Kane and Ajay. "Shall we continue on the way up?"

Kane looked up at the towering city that stretched far above them and nodded, speaking only once they had left the main gates courtyard. "So your, wife's name was Siesta. What was the other name she called herself by?"

"Ah, the Blue Lotus. We found out that her grandmother had been a Nod assassin named Black Lotus. She took the name when she found her grandmother's old stuff outside of her hometown." Louise replied.

"I see. So somehow Black Lotus got spirited away to these lands then? That would explain her disappearance." Ajay stated as he looked around the streets they walked through, seeing people walking through them, talking casually, and some stopping to look at them and even point. "Iis everyone in this city . . . ?"

"Nod? Yes, Nexus is our capitol, after all. Oh, we actually have two cities as well." Louise added quickly.

"Yes. Your daughter explained something along those lines to us, but did not go into much detail. There was a lot to do after all." Kane stated as they walked up to the large doors of Nexus Prime. Pushing it open Louise led Kane and Ajay through its large halls until they came to the main room that dominated the central area, the Combat Operations Center. It was designed similarity to the main laboratory with a large hologram projector computer in the center and many smaller computers to the side, the only difference was its function.

Stepping up to the main computer in the middle of the room Louise flipped it on, allowing the hologram projector to heat up as she spoke. "Um, I'm not sure if you know, but, we're not in Halkeginia."

"Halkeginia was the continent your home country was inside of, correct?" Kane asked making sure what she had told him long ago was still correct in his mind.

Louise nodded as the hologram lit up, showing a massive three dimensional map of the entire planet, and all of its major continents. As it appeared Ajay's and even Kane's eyes widened in shock. "It, all of the continents look similar to Earths? How is that possible?" Ajay exclaimed.

"Similar, but not the same, there are significant differences in the shape of many continents, Halkeginia is the one near the top shaped like Europe, correct?" Kane asked.

Louise nodded. "Yes. After our initial insurrection and the Scrin invasion we-,"

"The Scrin have been here?" Kane asked suddenly, his voice full of worry as he interrupted Louise.

Louise looked at Kane and Ajay for a moment. "Y- Yes. I suppose I should bring you up to speed from the beginning, huh?"

"That may be best. You can give us the quick version though if you like." Kane replied as he walked up to a small computer desk made of metal and leaned against it after making sure it would hold his weight and not move.

Louise nodded and brought up a screen covered in archive data that she, Siesta and Fouquet had parsed early into Nexus' history. "Then I guess I'll do just that." Louise said as she began to tell them everything. From her return to Halkeginia and her summoning of Legion as an avatar, to the growth of her own following, the Discovery of the Tacitus in the elven lands and the final battle with the Scrin.

As Louise finished the explanation, Kane nodded and stood up from the computer desk. "I see. You have handled things extremely well then. The Tacitus you found, may I ask what kind of information you have discerned from it thus far?"

"Mainly we've pulled Tiberium related technology from it. Using it we made Tiberium spikes that renew the resources around them while they gather. It's slower than a normal harvesting operation, but we don't have to worry about ever running out of resources like carbon and metals." Louise explained, bringing up a hologram of one such Tib spike.

"You said that you and your allies all got Tiberium infusions, just how common is infusion here?" Ajay asked as he pulled a flask off his belt and took a quick swig from it

"Iit's practically universal at this point, especially since children automatically have infusion. It was a major thing when our movement first started as it gives the native humans of this world the ability to use magic like Halkeginian nobles." Fouquet said loudly as she walked into the room and leaned over a computer desk, causing Ajay and Kane to look at her.

"Ah, this is the other one you spoke of then?" Kane asked as he glanced to Louise.

Louise nodded as Fouquet stepped further into the room and pulled a chair out from a desk, promptly sitting down on it and ignoring all politeness except the minimum required. "Fouquet the Adamant Earth, General of the Crystalists, and Clarities mother. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Prophet."

Kane nodded. "Likewise, Miss Fouquet. From the retelling of what happened in the past; it seems you are one with both experience, skill, and the mind to use it.

"Thank you," Fouquet said as she looked to Louise. "All of the wounded are now being treated, only one person died from their injuries and all the others seems to be past the worst of it. Some of the spectators pitched in and are going around the city looking for places for everyone to stay at the moment as well."

Louise let out a sigh of relief. "That is good. Is Faravis on his way, Siesta?"

Siesta dropped from the ceiling of the room, landing right beside her as she spoke. "Yes, he should be here presently."

Ajay looked at Siesta in complete shock. "How did you get up there? And how long were you there for?"

"Long enough." Siesta answered as she looked to Louise. "Am I to assume the prophet is up to speed?"

"I have been told of events that happened to you all, yes," Kane said as he looked to Siesta. "You make it sound like your waiting for a conversation to start. Did something happen?"

"You're arrival happened, for one!" Faravis called as he swung open the doors to the room and sauntered inside, stopping beside the computer in the center of the room and plugging something into it, quickly tapping keys on the computer.

"This is my husband, Faravis, our head of research and development," Fouquet said casually as he finally clicked what he wanted to, changing the hologram above them to a single long line of deep blue and red.

"I can find out our new friends names and everything later, you need to hear this!" Faravis said in an almost terrified voice as he looked to Louise and pressed a final button on the console in front of him. A warbled drone hung in the air alongside a horrendous screeching, and within it, small ringing pulses could be heard. Faravis let it play for only a few seconds, then shut it off and looked to everyone in the room. "Our probe on the threshold island was still partially functional and was able to record that sound. It's coming through the threshold at impossible to hear wavelengths. Every few hours it seems to change its tone slightly."

"It's a Scrin signal." Kane said suddenly. "Our people have been researching them for the past few years from the threshold on Earth. It's tone is changing you said?

"On the hour, exactly, down to a microsecond." Faravis answered.

"Then I fear the only sensible thing it could be, is a beacon, a timer." Kane stated grimly.

Everyone in the entire room swore under their breath. "Well that's just wonderful. Exactly what we didn't need, especially with the way the Halkeginian governments are acting." Louise exclaimed, causing Kane to look toward her with a brow raised.

"Are they connected to the Scrin, my child?" Kane asked.

Louise shook her head. "No nothing like that. Our agents in Halkeginia have reported that many of them are acting strangely though. While they're alliance with the elves is holding strong, it seems something is making them act strange, but it's not known what."

"Then we just need to be ready is all." Ajay said as he took another swig from his flask.

Louise nodded, "Yeah, we'll need to be prepared for whatever Halkeginia is planning, and what the Scrin are planning."


	9. Act 1 - Ch 6 - New Classmates

**Act 1 - Chapter 6**

**new classmates**

* * *

The Queen of Tristania, Henrietta de la Tristian, sat on one of two cushioned benches in the royal coach, her short deep purple hair bouncing about as the coach hit small ruts in the road. In the fifteen years since she had been made queen, and in the twenty since she last saw her childhood friend who was now considered dead, her body had matured greatly, as had her responsibilities. Her mother had passed on Queenhood to her before she had married, making her the ruler of Tristania, and not her husband, a situation that infuriated many of Tristania's nobles. "You look nervous." Henrietta said warmly as she looked to the young man sitting across from her, no older than her own daughter Mimi.

The young man was taller than most people his age and had a careful air about him. His dark black hair was accented with a single blond flash on the right side, and his elven ears poked clearly out from it. He wore the clothing of a magic academy student, provided for him by the academy itself. The boy looked up at Queen Henrietta and smiled, his amber eyes looking slightly worried, or perhaps nervous like the rest of him. "Y- Yeah, I guess I am. I know I was the one who came up with this because I wanted to learn but, actual being here and wearing this uniform, yeah I am nervous." the boy said with a sigh.

Queen Henrietta laughed to herself, "I can understand why you would be. Our countries may be on good terms, but that does not mean our people are, and both myself and your mother have been trying to ease the tension between our peoples. You coming here to learn about our magic is a wonderful thing to do, Isuka."

Isuka sighed and looked at the window beside him, his face painted by all sorts of emotions, including doubt and embarrassment. "It's not like I'm not doing this for myself though. My mother can use Halkeginian void magic, and my father is magic less. In all honesty I should not have magic myself, yet I'm able to use nature magic, and Halkeginian magic."

"Think of it as a gift then. You could do much to ease tensions if you wished to." Queen Henrietta said calmly, her smile never leaving her face.

Isuka groaned and sunk his head down a bit. "Its things like that that make me nervous. I hate being the center of attention, I'd much rather just help all I can while not being seen!"

Queen Henrietta giggled slightly and looked to Isuka. "I've said the same in the past myself. There were times where I despised my name and title, but we all have positions to hold and titles we must be worthy of. I'm sure you feel the same, despite our differences!"

Isuka sighed and nodded. He hated hearing this kind of speech, but he was mostly used to it. It was true of course, but that didn't change that he didn't like hearing them. "Is, that the Academy?" Isuka asked a moment later as he glanced out of the window at the stone wall on the horizon.

Queen Henrietta nodded, "Yes that would be Tristania's magic academy, where all the noble of Halkeginia learn to command their magic. It is known that you would be arriving today, but I kept my own presence a secret, so you won't have to deal with so much pomp and circumstance."

"Why?" Isuka asked, confused as to why the Queen of Tristania would hide that she was coming.

Queen Henrietta smiled, "So I can see my daughter and not be mobbed by pomp and circumstance of course!"

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"Hmmm, hmm, hrmmmmm."

"Would you quit that already, Mimi, it sounds ridiculous!" Marcus yelled as he tossed a small cracker into his mouth.

"But I'm trying to come up with a name for my familiar. It's harder than I thought it would be!" Mimi protested as her familiar sat calmly on her shoulder, its head turning to look in a different direction every few seconds, ignoring her master's situation it seemed.

"Then just pick one, it's not that hard. I already picked a name for mine, it's not that hard." Marcus stated, getting a chuckle as a reply from Devon who sat to his left, and Mimi's right.

"Well, when your familiar looks like a chunk of ice I can understand why it would be easy. Can yours do anything other than kill all the gardeners work though?" Devon said with a grin as he leaned over and handed a piece of bread to his familiar armadillo.

Marcus glared at Devon. The two of them didn't get along well, but they got along far better than their other family members had done in the past. "Yeah, he'll do what his name implies and drop you into a chasm, of ice!"

"Oh? Then I'll just have Kor bust through it!" Devon replied with a grin.

Mimi let out a sigh and looked around the courtyard, ignoring her two squabbling friends for a moment. It was the day after their familiar summoning and by tradition all of the second year students had no classes for the day to get to better know their familiars. In three days, at the end of the week, the familiar contest would be held, allowing everyone to show off their familiars to their fellow students, their teachers and, if they made it, their own families. She had no misconceptions about it though, she was the Princess of Tristania and as such the only time she would be able to show her mother her familiar would be when she returned for summer break, which was months away. It was only early spring after all.

"My familiar would beat the crap outta yours, and you know it!" Marcus growled.

"Oh, yeah? Want to test that!" Devon growled as well.

Mimi could feel herself becoming fed up with her friends bickering. It was a normal thing, but they often took it too far, and this was one of those times. "Both of you stop arguing before I sick Talos on you!" She suddenly yelled as she turned back to the table and her two friends.

Both Marcus and Devon became instantly silent and looked at Mimi, shocked looks covering their faces. Mimi almost never yelled at them, but when she did they knew they had screwed up, and this was one such time. "Sorry," both of them said simultaneously as their heads sunk low, instantly feeling bad for making Mimi raise her normally quiet voice.

"Wait, did you just, did you just decide your familiars name?" Marcus asked, suddenly realizing what he had heard.

Mimi looked at the two of them and her face filled with happiness. "I, I figured out my familiars name! Do you like that, Talos?" Mimi asked as she looked to her familiar, the Hawk made entirely of Opal now named Talos. Talos spread his wings and let out a quick chirp before settling again on Mimi's shoulder.

"I think your familiar is a rather quiet one it seems!" Devon said with a chuckle that Marcus joined in one.

"All of ours are it seems!" Marcus added as Mimi, puffed up her cheeks angrily, feeling silly for yelling, and feeling like they were picking on her.

"That's not funny."

"Sure it is it's,.. is that a royal carriage?" Marcus suddenly asked as he looked past Mimi and toward the school's main entry, where a large ornate carriage was pulling up to the doors of the school's great hall.

Devon and Mimi looked to where Marcus pointed, and almost instantly Mimi stood up from her chair. "I don't believe it!"

Before either boys could say a word Mimi began running toward the school, and the carriage that had just now stopped in front of the main hall, Talos hopping off of her shoulder and flying behind her casually.

"You don't think that it's-?" Devon began to say as Marcus got up from his chair and nodded." Yeah, let's go say hi, shall we?"

Devon said nothing as he and Marcus ran after Mimi, catching up to her just as she got to the edge of the stone pathway, just in time to see Headmaster Jean Colbert step out of the main hall and stop at the bottom of the stairs, a few other teachers right behind him. A second later the doors to the carriage opened and its recipients stepped out. The Queen was first, and wore a normal dress suiting one of her stature, though it was not overly frilly or regal, showing that she was not here on business. The second person to come out was who the teachers had been expecting, though the student body had known nothing about it, so the students nearby were shocked and began talking amongst themselves as they noticed his ears.

The queen smiled and stepped up to Headmaster Colbert and Curtsied with her dress as the young elf walked up beside her. "Good afternoon, Headmaster, how do you do today?"

Jean Colbert nodded and returned the queens greeting by bowing to her. "I am fine, My Queen, but I was not expecting you. I apologize for the lack of appropriate greeting.

Queen Henrietta shook her head and smiled. "No it is quite alright. I came only to accompany your newest student, and to say hello to my daughter. There is no need for proper greetings as I am not here on official business."

Jean Colbert nodded looked to the young elf. "You would be the son of General Saito and High Priestess Tiffania then, yes?"

Isuka nodded "Yes I am. My name is Isuka, and I am here to learn and help bridge the knowledge gap b- between our nations."

Jean smiled when he heard Isuka stutter, it was proof that he was still a young man, and still nervous. It made him happy as he had been seriously worried that he could be some insanely serious elven warrior child. "I see. Then, as the Headmaster of the Academy, let me give you a warm welcome to our Academy. I hope you will be able to learn much while here, and that you find your stay enjoyable."

Isuka nodded, unable to verbally reply for a moment. "Um, when will-?"

"Class for second years is out today for the students to get to know their familiars, and as you will be put into the second year class, you can get to know some people. We'll have your personal possessions brought to your room in a few minutes!" Jean said as the Queen walked behind Isuka and placed her hand on his shoulder, beckoning him to follow her.

Walking to the side and toward a small group of students the queen stepped up to Mimi, who stepped forward and hugged her with a smile, "Hi, mom!"

"Hi, Sweety, is this your familiar?" Queen Henrietta asked as she noticed the opal hawk that landed on her daughters shoulder.

Mimi nodded, "Um, yeah, Talos is my Familiar. Um, who's that?" Mimi asked as she looked to Isuka.

Henrietta smiled. "This is your newest classmate, the son of the elven General Saito, Isuka. He's here to join you in classes and learn about Halkeginia!"

Mimi, Devon and Marcus all looked at the Queen for a few seconds until her words finally kicked in, and when they did their reaction was all the same. " What!?"


	10. Act 1 - Ch 7 - Allies?

**act 1 - chapter 7**

**Allies?**

* * *

"So you're here as some sort of cultural exchange thing then?" Marcus asked inquisitively as he and Devon sat with Isuka at their table, Mimi having a chat with her mother somewhere on the school grounds.

Isuka nodded as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Y-yes. It was something me and my mother came up with."

"That's cool, all me and my mother do is argue." Devon said with a chuckle, clearly his and his mother's arguments not as serious as he made them to be.

"I see . . um, that girl, Meme was it? where did she go off to?" Isuka asked as he looked about.

"It's Mimi, and she's wandering about with her mom I'm pretty sure. They don't get to see each other often with Mimi being here and her mom being stuck in the capitol." Marcus said calmly as he picked up a cup of tea off the table and took a sip.

"I see. So she is this countries princess then, yes?" Isuka asked, clearly unsure of how it quite worked in Halkeginia.

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't she be?" Devon asked in a confused tone.

"Err, well. In the elven lands, your rank is not designated by your birth. While my parents are a general and the high priestess, I still have to prove myself before I can join the official army in any way. Birth does not designate title, so until I prove myself somehow, I am merely my parent's son."

"I see. So that's how it is, I'm not sure if that's nice or not." Mimi exclaimed as she walked up to the table and sat down.

"Done talking with your mom already, that's unusually fast for you two." Devon commented as he slid a plate with a small cookie on it to Mimi, who quickly scarfed it down with a nod of thanks.

"The headmaster wanted to talk to her about something. So I'm back with you guys again." Mimi explained, clearly upset by the turn of events, but understanding of it.

"I see. So even though you are a princess, you cannot see your mother? That is rather sad." Isuka stated solemnly, just thinking about how hard it must be to be away from your family for so long. Something he was quickly going to experience.

"Not really. I was the one who wanted to come to the academy after all!" Mimi exclaimed as she brushed the cookie crumbs off of her fingers and looked to Devon and Marcus, "shall we get going then?"

"Eh, you're still planning on going!?" Marcus exclaimed at Mimi, standing up from his chair as he did.

"Yes!"

Isuka looked at them and tilted his head slightly. "Um, what? Is the school going somewhere?"

"No, we had been planning to head to the nearby town to do some shopping, Marcus broke all of his quills, and Mimi wanted to look for an accessory for Talos." Devon explained casually to Isuka.

"Oh, that town we passed. Um, who's Talos though?" Isuka asked, looking around for the holder of that name.

"Talos is my familiar!" Mimi responded happily as Talos landed on her shoulder and yawned.

"I- I see. So you can just leave the school grounds? I thought that the students had to stay in the academy until their schooling was done?"

"What? That'd be insane!" Devon exclaimed in reply to Isuka's words. "Three years without seeing your families, ugh. The academy has three months of no classes a year so students can go home and see their families. Today is also a free day for us second year students so we can get to know our familiars."

"Yeah, but we figured we'd head to town to pick up some stuff. We still doing that then? Marcus asked.

"I don't see why we can't. Want to come, Isuka, it could be a good chance to see the town!" Mimi exclaimed as she looked at Isuka, waiting on his answer.

Isuka though, looked far from comfortable as he answered. "Um, could I really? It would cause trouble would it not? I want to learn, but I don't want to make a situation happen."

"It won't cause a situation, sure elves are still rare in Halkeginia, but Tristania is officially your ally, so it won't be a problem!" Mimi exclaimed happily, clearly intent of bringing him along. "Shall we go?"

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The only human city Isuka had ever been in had been the capitol of Tristania, and when compared to it, the town he now stood in was tiny. It reminded him of many of the smaller town around the elven capitol though, just like them its people seemed happy and calm, and less tense than people often seemed to be in a city.

The town itself was like one giant market. All of its building was made of wood and small amounts of stone. The farms around it were in full growth, and all of its people were happily waltzing around the center of the town, buying and selling their produce and crafts. Some people glared at him like he was unwelcomed, but for the most part people just seemed to ignore him and go about their business.

"It's pretty lively, isn't it?" Marcus asked casually as he stepped up beside Isuka without any reservation.

Isuka glanced to Marcus and could not help but be confused by how easily he was being accepted. "Y- yeah, small towns usually are though, right?"

"It depends on the town honestly. The town by my family's manor is a pretty quiet one." Isuka stated casually as he took a stepped forward and looked to Isuka. "Devon is running around with Mimi, want get something to eat while we wait for them?"

"I thought you needed quills?"

"I do, but I already have an order placed and paid for. I can get them on the way out of town, and M mimi will be a while, especially if Devon is with her."

"Why is that, are they . . . ," Isuka began to ask, stopping midsentence as his un-surety about the subject clearly surfaced.

"Nah, Devon just has a good eye for Jewelry and quality. He gets it from his father, I think. And Mimi just enjoys looking at a lot of the accessories. This town's craftsmen make all kinds of things out of wood, metal and minor jewels. And Mimi seems to prefer less expensive jewelry, probably because there's so much of it at the castle. So they both will be a while." Marcus explained as he and Isuka walked over to the fountain in the center of the town and sat on its edge.

Form the fountain Isuka could clearly see that the town was prosperous, and after a few minutes, caught sight of Mimi and Devon darting out of a shop front and across the street to another, big smiles on their faces. "The three of you, seem to be pretty close." Isuka could not help but mention under his breath. Unfortunate for him, Marcus heard him.

"Yeah, my family has always been close to Mimi's, and Devon's an old friend as well. It was kind of normal for the three of us to gather together, I think."

"I see. . . . I'm sorry."

"For what?" Marcus exclaimed surprised by Isuka's words.

"My coming, it seems I have gotten in your guys way. You'd normally be running around with them, right?" Isuka asked as he looked at the ground below him.

"Sometimes yeah, but not always. I'm not much into jewelry or stones so I just sometimes wait here for them."

Isuka looked up from the ground and stared at Marcus, "You just, sit here and wait? Couldn't you be doing better things with your time?"

"Probably," Marcus said with a shrug as he looked up at the sky, "sometimes I just watch the clouds go by, or let the wind brush past me. My mother is pretty strict for training, making me practice whenever I have the chance. I guess I just like to take it easy when I can."

Isuka turned his gaze from Marcus to the sky above, and a small smile slid onto his face. He had never thought of it that way. Perhaps it was because of his culture, but he just sat around and looked at the world around him. The only reason there was to look at your surrounding during training was to find advantages against your opponents. But the sky was the same as when he was back home. The bright blue sky had only a few sparse wispy clouds in it and the twin moons where beautifully vibrant in their spots of the sky. The sky looked the same, even thousands of miles away, it looked the same.

"You two look like you're comfortable. Don't strain your necks to much though!" Devon's voice rang out, causing Isuka to stop looking at the sky and return his gaze to the earth. Standing in front of him was Mimi, who looked extremely pleased for some reason, and Devon, who was holding a paper bag in his one hand, likely the reason why Mimi was pleased.

"Oh, sorry," Isuka apologized as he stood up and brushed off his pants, very embarrassed at being caught doing something so wasteful.

"I wouldn't worry about it, I'm just surprised Marcus found someone to sky gaze with him, eh Marcus? . . . . . . . . . Marcus?" Devon asked again, his words not seeming to reach Marcus as he continued to stare up at the sky, westward toward the horizon.

"Hey, Marcus! We're done. Return to Tristania, please!" Mimi called with a giggle, but even that did not pull Marcus's attention away from the sky. Instead he raised his arm and pointed up to the sky, his face slowly filling with fear and dread.

"W-w what is that!?" Marcus finally uttered, causing the rest to follow his finger and look where he was pointing.

High in the sky far off just above the horizon and hidden by many thin wispy clouds was an object. It seemed to be floating where Albion once did decades before, but as they looked at it, it became evident that it was moving, the clouds around it shifting and passing around it. It looked large and almost rectangular, but as it continued to move and become larger, it became obvious that it was heading toward them. After a few moments it was large enough to tell that the entire thing was white and yellow in color, and as they squinted to try to discern more details, dozens of small, vaguely bird shaped objects flew through h skies at speeds beyond any dragon, making horrendous screechy roars as they passed overhead.

"W-what are those things!" Mimi yelled over their noise. "They're so loud!"

"I don't know, but that big thing is getting closer!" Devon exclaimed just as loudly as the birdlike yellow things soared through the sky and past the horizon, appearing again seconds later.

"Wait, are those things sky demons?" Isuka asked, unsure of his own question. "I thought sky demons were darker!"

"Wait, if those things are – we need to get back to the academy now!" Marcus barked his tone now solid and commanding as all of them began running for the horses that had brought them to the village.

Racing though the country side the small objects continued to soar around, and some seemed to hover above them, following them like vultures as the larger object, now giant in its size from how close it was, followed behind them ominously. It's shadow eclipsed the sun above them and shadowed the entire countryside around them, but beyond that and the smaller ones screaming around above them, nothing seemed to attack, they just seemed to watch them.

"My mom once told me that the largest Sky demon that appeared years ago was so big it looked as if it could circle the sun with its width, but this one looks nothing like what she described!" Mimi yelled frantically as she spurred her horse to go faster in panic, though it could go no faster even if it wanted to.

"Yeah, these things don't look like what those sky demons were said to look in the history books." Devon agreed quickly as they sped forward, the academy finally in sight jus ahead. "there's the school! Hopefully they're ready for whatever this thing chasing us is!"

Isuka looked up at the giant object shadowing the surrounding. It was easily as large as a small city, but beyond that, he could tell anything about it. Except that it seemed to be changing its course slightly. "I don't think it's following us! It almost looks like its heading for the grass or forest beside the school.

True to Isuka's words the massive thing began drifting to the side, and as the four of them made it into the academy's grounds, the thing lowered to the ground just outside the gates, creating massive gusts of wind so strong they were almost blown over as Headmaster Colbert and Queen Henrietta ran out to them.

"Mimi! What is that thing!?" Henrietta called to her daughter in panic, staring at its bulk, still visible over the walls of the school despite it having touched down to the ground.

Mimi shook her head quickly, her face covered in fear. "I don't know! It seemed to follow us all the way from town. Marcus noticed it in the sky where Albion used to be. Is it those sky demon things?"

Mr. Colbert stepped forward and shook his head, slamming the bottom of his staff to the floor to garner everyone's attention. "That is no sky demon, it's something else entirely. And if it is landing so close, then it must intend to communicate. I shall go and see." Headmaster Colbert said as he began walking toward the academies gates quickly followed by two other teachers; Mrs. Zerbst and Mrs. Vallière.

Watching them all follow Headmaster Colbert, Queen Henrietta followed as well, and a moment later, Mimi, Devon, Marcus and Isuka followed as well. Outside of the Academy gates they stood in front of the strange machine. With it before them it was obvious that it looked like it was made of metal and other artificial materials. It was no living creature.

Many of the small flying objects hovered nearby, the glass covers on their tops seeming to glare at everyone below as a section of the massive object slid open and fall out, turning into a sort of stairway. Almost a dozen people in strange armour colored the same as the object stepped out of it, and lined up on either side of it like a procession of knights greeting royalty, and then two men stepped out of the object and down its ramp. The one man was old, with a bald head with hair only on its sides. He wore a uniform not unlike the soldiers around him, though his looked more suited to commanding than fighting. The man beside him was strange, looking only in his mid-forties, yet his eyes made him seem leaps and bounds older. He was wearing the same armour as the other soldiers and looked like one himself.

The bald man stepped forward and saluted to the teachers and queen, eyeing them intelligently and without disdain. "My name Is Lieutenant General Jack Granger, Head of The Global Defence Initiative of the United Nations of Earth. This is my right hand man, Commander Michael are here peaceably, and I would request to speak with the leader of this country if it is allowable!"

Queen Henrietta stepped forward and curtsied. "I am the Queen of Tristania, Queen Henrietta. You wish to speak to me about something, Mister Granger?"

Jack nodded and looked at Henrietta, his eyes like stone. "Yes. I'd like to speak about a man named Kane, and his organization, The Brotherhood of Nod!"


	11. Act 1 - Ch 8 - The GDI

**Act 1- chapter 8**

**The GDI**

* * *

"This, this place is pretty damn noisy. Don't Halkeginians know how to be quiet during such a thing?" Isuka asked from the small balcony of the Tristanian Diplomat hall that the Queen had allowed Devon, Marcus and Isuka to use during the current hearing.

Upon having met the two men that had come out of the strange flying thing that had landed outside of the Magic Academy, Queen Henrietta had decided that speaking to them there would be far from politically correct. Realizing this she decided to move their conversation to the capitol, but doing so came with the expected outcry of many nobles; a demand to make it a hearing that all noble could attend. The nobles that were attending would be able to ask questions and speak their minds, but the ultimate decision of anything at the meeting would fall on the queen herself.

The two men who had introduced themselves back at the Academy were standing in the center of the hall, while every noble in attendance stood on a balcony that lined the halls walls. The idea of the hall was to make those being spoken to feel less than those above them, and therefore more willing to speak truthfully for court cases, but neither of the men seemed anxious, just bored, as numerous nobles spoke and bickered with each other.

"It gets that way. Nobles like talking," Marcus said simply, speaking from experience.

"Why though? Isn't the point of all of the nobles gathering here to speak together about what is to be done about any situation?" Isuka asked, having to raised his voice a bit just to have Devon and Marcus hear him, despite their being less than five feet away.

"Yeah, but in reality it doesn't work perfectly. Most nobles are here for their own reasons, and that is to try to sway the queen's opinion and give themselves more leverage with her in the future." Devon explained.

"Silence!" A cardinal standing in the Queens balcony called, making the hall quiet in a mere second as the queen sighed to herself and stood up from her seat, stepping forward to the railing of her balcony and looking down to the two men, and their retinue of four heavily armored soldiers, their armor brightly golden, but still menacing by Halkeginian standards.

"I'm sorry for that rather, prolonged outburst from our nobles. They should know better!" The queen said her voice full of spite that made many nobles cringe and look away. Despite being a loving and caring queen, she did have a way with words that she had learned over the years. And such skill was perfect and cowing to many nobles. "Please continue, Mister Granger."

Jack Granger nodded and stepped forward, allowing his full uniform to be easily seen as he spoke. To many in the hall he looked like a noble because of his more formal uniform, but that did not hide the obvious militaristic similarities it held to the other man's and their retinue. Slowly exhaling a deep breath he looked around the hall, his steel like gaze taking a moment to glance at every noble before he finally spoke, his voice strong and serious, filled with importance, strength, and the truth of what he was to say. "My name is Lieutenant General Jack Granger. I am the head of an organization called the Global Defence Initiative, more commonly called the GDI. I know for a fact that you have not heard of us, but despite this I must request a boon from your people."

"And what kind of boon would you want from Tristania?" one noble asked his voice arorogance.

"Yes, what do you want, and why does your organization matter!?" another noble asked, sparking many of the nobles in the room to begin loudly asking similar questions.

Jack Granger let them speak, but when the noise became too loud for his taste he placed both hands behind his back and spoke up again, his voice reverberating through the hall, seemingly amplified by the hall's shape. "To answer your questions, the GDI matters because we are a force that tries to keep the peace of our world while trying to remove the danger of an element known as Tiberium from it. That mission has brought us here, as just a day ago, our foe, an organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, came here to escape from our pursuit. As to the boon I am asking, I would like to request an area of land twenty kilometers square so that we may build a base to hunt down the Brotherhood of Nod, and to help protect you from them!"

The room was quiet for a moment, but the small noise of noble's whispering to each other was still audible. In the queens balcony though, there were no whispers as the queen looked to her side to see her lead guard and the captain of the musketeer squad, Agnes de Milan, standing at the balconies back. In the years past as Henrietta ascended to the throne, Agnes had never left her side, and had grown even more skilled as she had gotten older. Now the queen's personal military advisor as well as the musketeer captain, she held great knowledge, including knowledge from the past war. "Agnes, does either of those things sound familiar to you?" Henrietta asked, turning her head ever so slightly, as to not allow anyone to actually know that Agnes was standing just behind the nearby curtain.

Agnes shook her head, Henrietta and her Cardinal being the only people to see, "Tiberium doesn't, but that Brotherhood thing does, I'm not sure why."

Henrietta nodded shallowly and looked back to Jack Granger clearing her throat to speak. "This brotherhood you speak of does not sound familiar to us, nor does the other thing you speak of. Would you mind explaining them in a bit more depth perhaps? Otherwise I will not be able to even consider what you request."

The hall grew loud once more with shouts of agreement from many of the nobles, and a few shouts that were far less respectful, and ignored. In reply Jack Granger turned his head to one of the soldiers and nodded, speaking after the soldier took out a long black tube-like object. "That is understandable, and I shall do so. First I will explain Tiberium to you." Jack Granger said as he twisted the tube and slid out the contents, a glass tube, with a bright green crystal in its center, a crystal that many people recognized. The crystal that covered the battered remains of Albion that sat in the sea off the coast. "This is Tiberium. It may look pretty to some people, but it is the most dangerous element we have ever laid eyes on. It absorbs and transforms other elements into more of itself, destroys the environment, and kills people in the process. Worse even, it grows on its own, slowly spreading its danger across the world and-,"

"Why would you bring death crystal here?" a noble suddenly screamed, unable to contain himself any longer.

"Excuse me?" Jack asked, confused by the nobles immediate reaction.

"That crystal. It is what you call Tiberium, yes?" Henrietta asked, the room instantly becoming quiet so that she and all others in the hall could hear the reply.

"Yes, this is a small Tiberium crystal. As long as it is in this case though; it poses no danger to anyone. And even if it somehow left this case, it would only be a danger in direct contact to anyone."

". . . That crystal. . . . It is familiar to us here in Halkeginia. We call it Death crystal, a name we acquired for it from our elven allies, because all it brings is death and destruction wherever they go." Henrietta said calmly, trying to gauge Jack Granger's reaction as she spoke.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming you know of it because of that small chain of Tiberium covered islands off the coastline?"

Henrietta nodded, her face becoming slightly pale as she recalled the horrors of that time, a time when so much changed and so many had died. "Yes, those islands were once a large floating island, the country of Albion. Now it is merely a place no one nears, for fear of the death crystals. Is this, Brotherhood you spoke of connected to them?"

Jack nodded and passed the Tiberium filled tube to one of the soldiers as he took out a small silver disk and tossed it to the floor, the disk opening up a moment later. "Yes, the Brotherhood of Nod is a religious cult that worships their leader, a man named Kane, as the Messiah of a new world. They also nearly worship Tiberium, believing it to be the substance that will bring them to a higher place of being. They have been responsible for a total of no less than three conflicts encompassing our entire world, and are responsible for entire sections of many continents being uninhabitable, due to their actions of spreading Tiberium."

Henrietta looked at Jack Granger and somehow knew he was telling the truth, but this organization he spoke of only partly sounded familiar to her. It sounded like the organization that had appeared years before, the organization that had summoned demons from the sky and had plunged Halkeginia into chaos, the organization that had been run by her long dead childhood friend. "Do you perhaps have any visuals of what this Brotherhood looks like, their armour or something of the like? I'd like to confirm something and need to see such a thing to do so."

Jack Granger nodded and pulled out a small remote, activating the disk he had dropped down, making it project a large hologram into the center of the room. "This is what the Brotherhood of Nod's most common logo looks like," he said simply as the symbol, a scorpions tail inside of a border appeared in the hologram field.

"I'm sorry, but it does not look to familiar, honestly." Henrietta said simply, hiding her surprise at the hologram itself, and holding herself back from asking about what it was.

"That is all right. The other images we have are a few rendering of Nod vehicles and armour." Jack Granger said as he pressed a control, changing the hologram of the logo to three different holograms. One was of Nod infantry armour, the second was of a Nod scorpion tank, and the final one was of a Nod Avatar, and all of the images caused many of the noble in the room to begin to whisper. They recognized all of these images all too well for some of them.

Henrietta turned to Agnes and nodded, gathering her attention as the numerous nobles in the hall began to bicker and speak louder and louder. "Agnes, send messages to all of our allies requesting their presences. Put down what you believe will get them to come."

Agnes nodded and disappeared from the shadows of the curtain, leaving the queen alone with the Cardinal. "Very well!" Henrietta called, silencing the masses in the hall. "I will need to think this over, and would like to also have a meeting with the heads of our allied countries. Until that time, you and your forces may keep your, machine, outside of the city, and your men may move freely, with minimal arms. Is that sufficient until we have a chance to speak to our allies?" Henrietta asked.

Jack Granger did not move for a few moments, but did finally nod to Queen Henrietta. "Do you believe that this is something you need to speak with your allies about to come to an answer?"

"I do."

"Then I have no problems with it, you may send a message to us when your allies arrive . . . . Would it be alright for my men to have access to libraries or other places of knowledge while we are here?"

Henrietta nodded. "That is fine. This meeting is adjourned!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Walking out of the Meeting hall, Michel McNeil could not hold himself any longer and finally let out a long breath, along with his thoughts. "I don't like this, these people don't seem to understand what is going on, yet seem to know more than they are letting on."

Granger nodded as the two of them walked through the streets of the Tristanian capitol, the Kodiaks massive frame visible even over the numerous large buildings of the city as it sat just outside. "I know what you mean; their bureaucracy is just as bad as our own, if not worse. Monarchies have always been said to be bad. I guess we now know why."

" . . . . . . I don't know exactly what other countries they want us to meet with, but all they have appears to be carriages and those massive floating sailing ships. No matter what they take it'll be days before anyone else gets here. That means days before we get anywhere!"

"I know, and while I don't personally like using such means, I want you and a few of your best men to go out into the city and country and gather what information you can. Anything about what they know about Tiberium, and why they seemed to recognize Nod vehicles, but not the logo."

McNeill nodded, "What kind of operation actions are you allowing?"

"Anything within reason. We're still trying to make alliances here to get information and land the diplomatic way, so don't do anything to screw that up."

McNeill nodded again and turned away from Granger, walking down a different street toward the city center with a wave of his hand, "I'm going to go for a drink. I'll see you back at the Kodiak!"

Walking through the streets of the city McNeill could feel a very old world feel from its cobblestone roads, brick and wood buildings, and oil lamps that lined the streets. They reminded him of the old cities of Europe, and the lack of machinery only made it more obvious that this place was not the same as earth. Everyone he saw walking on the streets wore clothing he hadn't seen outside of a theatre, large dresses, coats with long split coattails, and even the occasional courtesan wearing dresses cut so low it was almost criminal. Every person that was armed carried a sword or knife, and the few guards he saw walking the streets seemed to carry primitive flintlocks. McNeill let out a sigh as he turned into a tavern and crossed the floor to a far side, hoping that no one would notice him and he would be able to listen in on other people.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

McNeil looked up to find a mid-aged man with dark hair standing before his table wearing deep blue robes and carrying a heavy wooden staff. He was one of the men who had been present when the Kodiak first landed nearby the strange tower they had found that was apparently a school of some kind. "It might be. Aren't you one of that school's people or something?"

"The Magic Academy of Tristian's Headmaster actually, Jean Colbert, at your service." Mr. Colbert said as he moved a chair out and sat down across from McNeill.

McNeil scowled to the side, he needed information, not a conversation with an overly friendly principal of a noble's school. "And what does a noble teacher want with a mere common soldier like myself?"

"I'd like to exchange information, but not as the Academies headmaster, but as a member of the Gilded Cage." Mr. Colbert whispered across the table, catching McNeil's attention.

"And what is this, Gilded Cage, that you are talking about?"

"It's a group that, well let's just say it's a group apart from royalty and nobles. I'd like to exchange information with you, mainly about that brotherhood you talked about in the meeting, and the fact that their weapons looked very similar to those of a group that appeared twenty years ago here. A group called the Crystalists!"

McNeil let a smile slip from his lips, "Alright, let's see what we can learn from each other!"


	12. Act 1 - Ch 9 - Return of the Machine

**ACT 1 - Chapter 9**

**Return of the machine.**

Oda Nobunaga stood up from his cushion and drew the blade on his waist, pointing it towards the attackers that had forced their way past his guards and into his personal chambers. The intruders all looked like walking sets of armor, though the armour did not look like it belonged in his lands, or those far to the west. It was strangely generic, but the being's eyes glowed an unearthly red. "If you brutes forced your way past here through my front door, I can only assume you are here to die, what say you?

None of the three beings said anything but instead raised their sword wielding arms and readied themselves for combat.

"Then silent death it is!" Oda Nobunaga roared as he stepped forward toward the nearest being. It swung its blade down toward him, but such a sloppy move would never hit him, and he dodged it easily. His blade soared though the being's neck, dropping its head to the ground. Before the other two can act Nobunaga stepped toward them and swung his blade once for each, dropping another head off of one, and cutting the third's torso off its legs.

Looking around Nobunaga made sure that no other surprises await him, then picked up the bodiless head of one of the beings and shook it, expecting a head to fall from the helmet. It didn't. He shook it again, and this time looked for blood. Finding none, he tipped the helmet and looked inside, finding only metal and strange wires like bowstrings. "What manner of sorcery is this?" he muttered to himself as he dropped the head and walked over to his armour closet, opening it to allow the light to shine on his prized armour.

Setting his sword respectfully aside, but near enough to grab if anyone neared, he carefully took his armour and donned it. It had been almost a year since he has had to don his armour, or unsheathe his blade. All of Nippon, from the great ocean to the east, to the great mountains to the west, to the jungles of the south, and to the steppes of the north, all was his kingdom, all was Nippon. He had conquered the land, unified its peoples, and established a single government ruled by him and those he trusted. Under his rule since, the land had prospered and grown strong. And now his castle appeared to be under attack by strangely unearthly assailants. Something had to be done, he had to stop this.

Now fully armored Nobunaga picked up his blade and left his room, finding no assailants inside of the castle as he left exited though main doors into the courtyard. In the courtyard stood a small squad of his finest men armed to the teeth, and in their center was his greatest General and most respected friend, Shibata Katsuie. Covered in thick dark green scale mail armour and wielding his great green spear he looked exactly like the name he had earned in battled years ago, the mountain Oni. With a great swing of his spear he sundered the armoured bodies of his assailants, sending pieces of their bloodless forms into many others and knocking them down in the process. One armoured being leapt through the air toward him, its sword high in the air with the intent to strike him down, but Katsuie knew of that foe, and plucked it out of the air with his free hand, throwing him down to the ground, sundering its existence as easily as a man swatted at a fly. He was truly an Oni on the field of battle.

"I see our time of peace has not yet lessened your skills, Shibata!" Nobunaga said with a loud laugh as he jumped down the stairs and kicked one of the armoured beings, crushing its head under his boot before swinging his arm and killing three of them at once.

Shibata looked to Nobunaga and nodded silently, swinging his spear and impaling one being before throwing its body at another. "Yes. I am sorry I allowed three of them past me, I beg your forgiveness, my lord."

"Forgiveness is not necessary. It looks like you have been busy, and three beings with such weak skill would never fell me. Where are they coming from though?" Nobunaga asked as he looked up to see dozens of plumes of smoke lifting up from the city below his castle, telling him the entire city was likely under siege.

"I am sorry but I do not know. I was in the middle of training the guard's not on shift when these strange metal things burst through the main gate, one of them holding the head of the guard captain. More of them keep appearing as well, through the gate as well as over the walls. Their blades are flimsy and their motions easy to catch, but their movements themselves are fast, only our best are holding out."

Nobunaga nodded and thrust his sword behind himself, impaling the torso of a being before ripping his blade from it and beheading another. Looking around, the number of armoured being inside of the courtyard seemed to be dwindling, allowing Nobunaga to walk aside Shibata and motion for him to follow. Stepping into the main gates they found the city below them in frightful flames, hundreds, if not thousands of the armoured being running around, killing at random, and far off in the distance, they could see columns of the being running towards outlying towns and cities. What seemed the most terrifying though was the monstrosity in the middle of the city. A being seemingly made of metal with no visible head, it was as large as a three story building, and its arms seemed to belch blue jets of flame that destroyed all they touched. The monstrosity was held up on four massive legs, and upon its chest was an insignia or drawing of what could only be some sort of skull or face, completely pale blue.

"Shibata." Nobunaga said, his voice strangely calm, yet filled with worry and dread.

"Yes, my lord?" Shibata replied as he watched the monstrosity below them set more building on fire, then grab and crush a merchant in its massive hand.

"Have the gods forsaken our great land. Has Amaterasu declared our end?

"I do not know, my lord. I have never met the gods, and if I did I don't think I would notice, nor would they notice one such as myself."

Nobunaga let out a quick and hearty laugh and then looked at Shibata, his eyes like steel and his face a hard as stone. "I do not know what those things are, nor do I know their goals, but it is clear they are heading elsewhere as well. I will clear my city with my own hands, but I want you to do something for me, something extremely important."

Shibata hefted his spear and smiled, "Merely name it, my lord, and I shall sunder heaven and the underworld both if I must!"

"More important than my life is that the Oda continue, and more important than this land, I wish my Sister Nona to be safe. She should have just returned to our territory from the first negations with those elves. I ask you to find her, and keep her safe, no matter what."

Shibata looked at Nobunaga for a moment and nodded carefully. If there was one thing he had learned in his service to the Oda, it was that his sister Nona was more important to Nobunaga than anything else In the world, even his own pride, honor or life. "Of course, my lord. I shall make sure she is safe and keep her safe."

"Please do. I do not know how strong that monstrosity is, but I believe it leads these other things. I will challenge it and fell it. And if I cannot, lead Nona to safety eternal." Nobunaga stated as he ran down the stairs and into the city square where the metal monstrosity stood, burning all around it. "Monstrosity of metal, I am Oda Nobunaga, ruler of this city and land. You must have a death wish to challenge my power so openly. If you can speak, do so now that I may know the name of what I am to kill!"

The massive monstrosity turns to Nobunaga, its four large metal legs crashing to the ground heavily with each step as it turns its entire body. After looking at him for a moment the skull logo on its chest seems to disappear, and a red, almost ghostly and skeletal face appears in its place, moving as if it was a live being somehow on the monstrositie's chest.

"Oda Nobunaga!" the strange red face said with a laugh, its voice eerie and artificial, "your name is one that I know, and I know much! You live without being killed by your own and shall die by my hand instead. Oh, such a wonderful idea!"

"What, what are you, creature?" Nobunaga demanded, readying his blade as he noticed dozens of the humanoid beings gathering on nearby rooftops, yet not attacking like before.

The being's face laughed again, seeming impossibly human, and yet horrifically not as it did. "I am the Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform, I am CABAL! With this Core Reaper I am reborn with the knowledge of this new and tainted world, and with it, I shall bring about a new age of perfection!"

"You seek to usurp the gods will? I shall strike you down in their place! Prepare yourself, monster!" Nobunaga roared as he ran up to Cabal's body, and swung his blade at its nearest leg. His blade dug into the metal plate, but did not cut through and before he could pull away the leg flicked out, sending him flying into a nearby building with a heavy crack.

"Hahahaha. Such is human imperfection. Humanity is at an evolutionary dead end, and that can only be rectified by having humanity serve a new purpose, disposable labor for the new world order. My order!"

Nobunaga pulled himself out of the indented wall, noticing small sections of his armour fall off in chips. Not giving up he let out a roar and ran to the side, quickly rushing up a nearby overturned cart onto the roof of a house. With the height advantage Nobunaga leapt off of the roof and landed on the top of CABAL's nearest leg, then ran up to its main body and began slashing with his sword.

CABAL could not strike where Nobunaga was, but the armored body of his Core Reaper was far too tough to be cut by a measly sword. Grabbing one of his automated soldiers off a nearby roof he threw it toward his own body, and the soldier tackled Nobunaga onto the ground. "Did you really think such a simple idea would work on one such as I? Though I suppose you cannot truly fathom what you fight." CABAL said with a chuckle as he turned to Nobunaga.

"Anything can work with enough will and strength!" Nobunaga said as he threw the damaged minion off of himself and stood up, shaking his now battered and useless helmet off of his head and onto the ground. "If the bird will not sing I will kill it, and if you will not die, I will make you!"

"Just as history makes you out to be, you are quite the reckless and violent one aren't you, Nobunaga the fool!"

"I am no fool. I am the Lord of Nippon, the man who has defeated every foe that has come his way. I have brought unity to Nippon, and will do so to the rest of the world so that peace reigns supreme!" Nobunaga yelled as he ran toward CABAL again.

"Just as expected," CABAL said as his entire torso turned at high speed, allowing him to sweep his arm across the ground and snatch Nobunaga up into his iron grip. "Your skills are impressive, but against one such as I, they mean nothing."

"You damn monstrosity, release me at once and fight me as a warrior!" Nobunaga demanded as he squirmed in CABAL's grip, slamming the edge of his blade against CABALS arm with his free hand, hoping to damage something, any part of him and gain freedom from CABAL's grasp.

Cabal held Nobunaga and looked him over as he squirmed, quickly becoming bored with him. "The history of both worlds shall know you as the fool, and I have no need for fools!" Before Nobunaga could say anything the Black Obelisk Lasers built into the Core Reapers hands opened fire on him, heating its own fingers to the point of glowing orange, and disintegrating Nobunaga's body completely.

Shibata Katsuie could not believe what had just happened before him, but he had no choice to. His lord had been killed before is eyes, and he could do nothing about it. But he had his final orders, and he was going to see them through, no matter what. As he prepared to run down the stairs and past the monster called CABAL he noticed a glint in the dirt below it, Nobunaga's sword, somehow untouched and whole. If his Lord's weapon still existed, it was his duty to return it to Nona as well.

Rushing down the stairs Shibata ripped a spear out of the nearby ground with his free hand and hefted it, throwing it towards CABAL. The spear flew true and struck CABAL's far shoulder, causing him to turn in that direction, away from Shibata for a moment. And a moment was all he needed.

With speed surpassed by barely a handful he reached Nobunaga's sword and snatch it up, while simultaneously swinging his spear at one of Cabal's legs. With his massive strength the spear's tip broke through the metal on the legs joint and tore its way through. He hadn't hit the joint head on, but the damage he did do to it was sure to cripple its movement.

Rushing forward he dashed into an alley, swinging his spear in broad arcs whenever a metal minion neared him so he would not have to slow down. He had his orders, and he would fulfill them. As he ran through the city he heard CABALs voice ring out, as if amplified by everything around him.

"Your skill and power are impressive, but humanities time is through! My forces will sweep across the world and turn all to the perfection of steel. The time of the machine has come!"

End of ACT 1

**Authors note: yes that happened, and yes a CABAL is inhabiting a body that is a cross between a Cyborg reaper and a core defender, shudder to imagine one fighting a hexapod.**

**And yes this is the end of the first act, but things are just getting started, so I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Till the next one!**


	13. Act 2 - Ch 1 - Plans

**Act 2 - Chapter 1**

**Plans**

* * *

Kane. He was a man known by many names, messiah, prophet, bringer of Tiberium, fanatic, madman. These names and more were all true, yet untrue, and carried with them a history of three wars and a staggering amount of years.

But here in this foreign land, this was only partially so, Kane thought to himself as he looked around the City of Nexus; a utopia for Louise's people. The prophetess. That was what her people called her with as much benevolence and warmth as he was called by his own.

Nexus was beyond what he had ever seen for the brotherhood of Nod. It was more massive than the temple primes of old, and the mere thought of how much land area it controlled was staggering.

Louise had been a welcome addition to his forces when he first met her years ago in the fields of green but now she commanded her own legions of Loyal Crystalists. It made him extremely happy, yet also made him worry. In the past his greatest allies had betrayed him more than just once. Would the same thing happen here? Would he be betrayed and trapped on foreign soil, unable to watch as his dreams manifested into reality?

"No, I mustn't let my negative thoughts get the better of me, not now of all times." Kane muttered to himself as he looked up at the sky above him. Its vibrant color and the presence of two moons, far larger than most he had seen, proved he was on a different world.

"Hey, prophet!"

Kane turned his head to the voice that beckoned out to him. Standing a few feet away was the one that was Louise's wife, the Blue Lotus. Siesta was her name if he recalled correctly. He had not spoken to her since the first time they met a week before, but something about her made him very cautious.

Her grandmother, the Black Lotus, was one who Kane had been familiar with. She had been one of his best agents in the Asian blue zones, and was so skilled, that most people at that time thought she had been a myth. Siesta looked like her in many ways, and her body fit her grandmother's old, and rather revealing outfit well, but whenever Kane had seen her in the last week, she always seemed to be glaring at him. And something about her glare, no, her eyes and her entire being, made him very, very cautious.

"Yes, do you need something, Blue Lotus?" Kane asked, doing his best to be polite. It wasn't something he was familiar with. He knew how to be polite to his subordinates and people, doing so often brought better results. But this was not being polite to someone under him, it was more akin to someone, beside him, and perhaps that was what made him so cautious of her.

"I don't, but our inner circle is having a meeting, and Louise asked me to see if you and Ajay wanted to join us for it." Siesta said, her gaze fixed on Kane's face.

Kane nodded to her and quickly followed her up the streets of Nexus, his mind working as it usually did, thinking. Louise had stated that after their prior meeting, they would put things on hold until the Brotherhood from earth was settled, and it seemed now she was deciding to have things move forward. The timing was strange though. While some of his people were still recovering from injuries, they all were settled, and many were helping local Crystalists with their work as a way to pay for lodgings. They had been settled for half a week already, so what had happened that made her decide to move forward again?

There was the one other thing that had been bothering him as well. Louise had described her rough plan to him, but had given no details on immediate plans or operations. He knew that she trusted him; it had been proven years before. So was she being cautious or just avoiding giving him information for some sort of reason?

"Before we head to the CIC, there is something I've been meaning to say." Siesta suddenly said as she stopped just shy of the doorway to Nexus Prime, Kane a mere meter behind her.

"And that would be?" Kane quickly replied with a calm tone and expression.

Siesta spun around on her heels and looked around, finding and sensing no one nearby but herself and Kane then spoke with her tone serious and edged with steel. "I do not know what kind of plans, machinations or ideas you have for things here, but I will not let them interfere with our own plans! You may be the great prophet, but Louise is the leader here, and if you do anything that causes her problems, I will personally drown you under a thousand gallons of liquid Tib, and ignite it. Do I make myself clear!?"

Kane could not reply instantly and was visibly surprised by what Siesta had just said. He knew that she seemed the most leery of his presence, but he had no idea she was so protective of Louise. But it didn't matter. "You do not need to worry. My forces and I shall provide assistance as we can, but our primary objective is returning to our world."

Siesta glared at Kane for a moment and turned back to the doors, flinging them open and walking inside without a word. Going through the building to the CIC, it was exactly as Kane had seen it the first time, with one stark difference. The hologram projector in the room was showing a large map of the continent, as well as small blinking lights taking up most of Tristania and spreading into the countryside around it.

Standing in front of the hologram was Louise, Fouquet, Faravis and Ajay, and all of them seemed to be staring at the blinking lights.

"It's too spread out; I don't see how they could all be related." Ajay stated.

"I agree. Halkeginia does not have the technology and magic does not bring such readings." Faravis said seriously.

"Yes, but we know that GDI followed you guys through the threshold. If they managed to land in Halkeginia without causing any battles, their forces could be the ones giving us these signals." Fouquet added calmly as she pointed to the clusters of lights in Tristania.

"Regardless, of where the waves are coming from, it does not change the fact that GD is likely in Halkeginia, and that we may have to accelerate our plans. Right, Louise?" Siesta said loudly as she and Kane walked up to the hologram table.

Louise nodded and placed both hands on the table, looking to Kane as she did. "Sorry to have you come here, but I figured you might want to know what we were planning."

"It is quite alright. Please continue, I shall speak only if I feel it necessary." Kane replied, suddenly getting a chill down his spine as Siesta left his side and walked around the table, stopping beside Louise.

"Alright, thank you for being here then," Louise said with a smile, before her face suddenly became serious, as if all prior emotion had drained out of it. "Back to the point at hand then, we'll come back to these radio signals later. Siesta, if you would."

Taking her call, Siesta tapped on a board and changed the holograms format, replacing the blinking dot with small red ones, that appeared as she spoke, positioned at different places in the different countries. "In the last three months we have lost many agents that were gathering intelligence and hunting leads in Halkeginia. One in Tristania and Germania, two in Gallia, and three in Romalia. All of our agents were actively looking for information of the group we believe is working behind the scenes in Halkeginia

"Um, sorry for interrupting when we're just kind of here, but a group, behind the crowns? As in plural?" Ajay asked suddenly.

Siesta nodded. "Yes, we found proof of its existence a few years ago, and believe they were the reason some of our original, and earlier plans did not come out the expected way. We don't have a name, but we believe it is a group comprised of both nobles and commoners due to the seemingly wide range of their influence."

"Hmmm, so they've caught roughly half our agents in Halkeginia then?" Fouquet asked unsure of the numbers.

Siesta nodded." Yes, and that is our problems, do we send in more people, change the direction of our searches, or change who is there in the first place."

"How about we change up who is over there then?" Faravis said after a moment of silence, causing everyone to look to him.

"But to whom?" Louise asked.

"Stay with me for a moment here, but I suggest we send, to Tristania at least, our daughters. We'll send Clarity and Emelia."

"What? That would never work? Emelia maybe, but her personality is far from perfect for wet work, and Clarity just wouldn't fit in!" Fouquet nearly shrieked.

"No, it would work." Louise suddenly said, causing everyone to look to her in surprise. "If we had Emelia holding a place for Clarity to come back to as a regular person, Emelia could get to know the people, while Clarity finds out what people don't want found. It could work, but we'd need a place near lots of knowledge, and where someone her age could blend in."

Siesta sighed and placed a hand on the bridge of her nose "Louise, think back a bit."

" . . . . Huh?"

"Ugh, the school! We have Emelia enter the magic academy!" Siesta said finally.

"Ah, I see. If Emelia is there as a student she would blend in, and Clarity could use her dorm room as a place to rest between areas for missions. There's no way she'd be caught by any of those old buffoons anyway!" Fouquet said with a smile.

"Hmmm, I'm not so sure, some of the teachers know us. If they find a connection between either of them to us, they could be compromised." Louise muttered with crossed arms, clearly not entirely on board with the idea.

"True, we'd have to make sure their initial insertion into the school went off without a hitch . . . . . and I think I know how it can be done." Siesta said with a smile as she rapped upon the keyboard before her and brought up images of the academy. "If we can alter the records of transferring students, and get someone's stamp of approval, we could have Emelia go in as, say, a low ranking Germanian noble's daughter. I think it'd work."

Louise hummed to herself for a moment before looking to Fouquet and Faravis, both of whom gave strong nods to her. "Alright, our girls are our best people really. We'd have to send people to get her in though and to make up her fake identity, and can your people do it, Siesta?"

Siesta smiled at Louise words and leaned away from the console, placing her hands on her hips as she did, "my shadows could, but they might make a mistake, so I'll do it myself! I'll leave as soon as we're done."

Louise nodded. "Alright then. There's only one other thing we need to look into then. GDI!"


	14. Act 2 - Ch 2 - Knowledge and power

**Act 2 - Chapter 2**

**Knowledge and power**

* * *

"McNeil! Where have you been these last two days!" Jack Granger demanded to know as McNeil entered the Kodiak Strategic War Room.

The war room was a large rectangular with a Holo-table taking up the majority of its center. Computers lined the remaining walls, leaving only enough room for people to walk around and through to the room's two doors. The Holo-table was showing nothing above it, and instead just glowed a light blue, illuminating the room with its calm glow.

McNeil looked at Granger and sighed to himself as he walked across the room and sat at the end of the Holo-table, "I was out gathering information, and was able to find out what those nobles and that queen have been hiding from us. It's quite a bit."

Jack Granger raised an eyebrow and sighed as he walked over to the Holo-table and leaned on it a bit as he spoke. "What did you find?"

McNeil smiled as he pulled out a small silver ring with an image of a bird cage on it and tossed it onto the table. "It seems this continent is not nearly as upstanding as we thought. That ring is an invitation to visit a group that calls itself the Gilded Cage. It's a group of common people and nobles together that apparently work behind the scenes to keep things calm. I learned quite a bit from one of their members, who also happens to be the headmaster of that school we first saw."

"And? What did you find out, McNeil?"

"Roughly twenty year ago, a series of events transpired on this continent. They called it the Heretic's War."

"So it was a religious war then?" Granger asked as he stepped away from the table and moved to a nearby chair, feeling that he might need it depending on what he heard.

"In a way. The heretic in question was a noble child who, you will love this, found Tiberium and used it as a way to create her own army of fanatics. I was told just the bare minimum about the conflict, but from what I was told, it led to many serious battles, as well as an invasion by the Scrin."

"So that means that threshold tower had been used a mere twenty years ago, interesting. Is there anything else of interest that you learned?"

"Yes, two things. The noble girl's organization was collectively known as the Crystalists. They had Nod Scorpion tanks as well as other Nod weaponry under their control. But what got my attention the most was how the girl that led the group was described."

"Why? Was it unusual?" Granger asked as an officer brought him a cup of coffee which he gratefully accepted.

"You might say that. He described her as a short girl with bright pink hair." McNeil said as he tapped on a keyboard at his end of the holo-table. "It reminded me of a number of reports from near the middle of the third Tiberium war."

"Reports?"

"Yeah. Specifically this one, a report from the African red zone, the event where one of our MARVS was detonated from within. The only image is blurry, but take a look." McNeil said as he brought up the image sent from the MARV before it had been destroyed. The image was extremely blurry, as most images from Red zones turned out to be, but it showed the front of the MARV where it would entrap and process Tiberium. Clinging to the top of its mouth was the form of a person with long flowing hair, but from the looks of the picture, the person's hair looked brown or red.

"That image, yes, I recall it now. R&amp;D had no idea how a MARV could've detonated like that when it had not been damaged beforehand. The one survivor from that incident. . . . He said something about that person's hair, didn't he?"

McNeil nodded. "I had questioned him myself at that time, and he said that a girl with pink hair was responsible. At the time I thought he had shellshock, but now. . . I think there may be a connection that we should look into."

"Hmm, yes, perhaps we should. There is a more pressing matter however, and that is the matter of setting down so we might hunt for Kane without problem . . . . . We received a letter just before you returned. It states that the heads of each nation will be in this country tomorrow, and that the meeting with all of their leaders will be then."

"I see. Are you wanting me to come with you?"

"No, I want you to keep finding information, and since you seem to have found a good connection, maybe look into it as well," Granger said as he flicked the ring back across the Holo-table toward McNeil, who caught it without looking.

"I see. Alright then. I much prefer being out in the field to stuck in a meeting hall. I'll find out what we need while you get us a base of operations." McNeil said with a smile and a wave as he stood up from his chair and walked out of the room, leaving Granger to prepare for his upcoming battle of wits with the noble or not so noble leaders of this world's countries.

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Siesta ran through the dark nighttime forests of Tristania with a single goal in mind. The Magic Academy.

The plan was simple really. Emelia would be inserted into the school as a sort of sleeper agent to give Clarity a place to hole up in between forays for information, and while Clarity was out, Emelia could find out what Tristania's nobles were up to. To do this she needed to have a false identity under a noble house, and it would have to be one that was little known, and not under scrutiny.

To that end all of the papers and work for the false identity had been set up correctly, the only thing left to do was the most problematic one. The information had to be inserted into the school in such a way that nothing seemed amiss, yet left the family itself completely out of the loop and unknowledgeable about it. And that was why she was here.

There were two options. The papers could be left on the headmaster's desk under other papers, making it look as if they had been misplaced, or she could have them given directly to the headmaster by a member of the school. The second option would be more believable, but it was unlikely.

Luckily Siesta had an idea that could make the second option work, but she still needed to get into the school to go through with it, but that wouldn't be a problem for her.

Breaking out of the forest, Siesta grinned as she ran down the hill towards the walls that surrounded the academy. Running at full speed she crouched down at the last second and leapt up at the wall, reaching almost all the way up, and scrambling the rest of the way without making a sound.

Looking around Siesta could easily tell that the top of the wall was clear, but it was quickly confirmed that the grounds of the academy were not. At least a handful of familiars prowled the grounds, likely using the time to stretch their legs, but also posing a problem for anyone who wanted to break in. It was not a problem for her though.

Slinking across the wall Siesta dropped behind the building used by the school's maid staff and stopped beside the window that led to the kitchen. Checking over the latch she found it the way it had been years ago, and slipped it open without a sound. Moving into the kitchen, Siesta felt a pang of nostalgia strike her. It had been years since she has been here, but everything was arranged the same way as it had been before. It felt strange to say the least.

"Is someone there?" came the sudden and gruff sound of an older man's voice from the entrance to the kitchen.

Darting her eyes toward the person she could see his silhouette at the entrance, but it was so dark that she knew her identity would be safe. All she needed to do was slip out and make them think they saw something. But something seemed off. Anyone walking in this area in the dead of night would have a candle on them, or had to be up to something less than good. Letting her hand drift to the hilt of her short blade on her waist Siesta began moving to the side as slowly as possible, ready for any possibility. With the room this dark, if she did not move fast most people would assume their eyes were playing a trick, and if they moved forward with bad intent, she would be more than ready to spill their insides upon the floor; though she hoped she would not have to.

Unexpectedly, the man did not move away or forward. Instead he slowly reached to his side and pulled out a box that sounded to Siesta that it was likely a matchbox. Proving her guess right the man pulled out a match and lit it, illuminating himself, and the kitchen, just enough to see the edges of things clearly.

" . . . . That, that's you isn't it . . . Siesta." Marteau said unsurely.

Siesta was quiet for a moment as she let Marteau 's voice ring in her ears. She hadn't heard his voice in as many years as she had been here, but unlike the academy itself, his voice carried only good memories. He was the single reason why the maids always could keep their heads strong when they worked here. He did not let them get pulled into a nobles business if he could help it, and he had always been kind to them.

Now though, he looked, wrong. He had been middle aged when Siesta had been at the academy all those years before, but now he looked old, far older than he should by all rights. His skin was wrinkled and loose, and his eyes looked cold and empty, like life was flowing out of them. He looked like he was tired, more tired than the oldest person Siesta had ever seen. He did not look healthy.

"You looked better when I last saw you." Siesta said after a few moments of quiet as she stepped out from the shadows and into the match light.

"I would have, yes. . . . I- I had heard the rumors all those years ago, but I had never fully believed them, you are with those Crystalist people, aren't you?"

Siesta smiled and raised her free hand, conjuring an orb of water that quickly began to glow a cool blue in color from the Tiberium inside it, illuminating her more properly. "And if I am?"

Marteau shrugged, "Then nothing really. It seems that old rumor that Crystalists had magic is true. It's odd seeing you use it so easily."

"I've had practice, but we have a problem now." Siesta said calmly.

Marteau nodded. "I figured as much. The Crystalists are thought to be dead, but if you are alive, I'm guessing others are as well, and there must be a reason you are here."

Siesta nodded, "Yes, there would be. . . . . Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on everything that happened in the past?"

"If you are meaning the Heretics War, then I was always on the fence. I think the nobles acted poorly considering the situations, but I think the Crystalists, and Louise, could have given out more information to the nobles as well."

Siesta smiled and lowered her arm, pulling out a slip of folded paper, closed with a wax seal. "Then would you be willing to do something for me? For old times' sake?"

Marteau thought for a few moments before speaking up, his voice wheezing slightly as he began. "Will anyone come to harm if I do?"

"Everyone is always in danger, but no, it will not cause anyone direct harm. All I need you to do is to hand this letter to the headmaster. Say, as if it got mixed up in the mail perhaps." Siesta said as she threw the paper on to the nearby counter.

Marteau carefully walked over to the counter and picked up the paper, looking over its wax seal. "This, is this a letter for a student to join the school?"

"Yes, it is, but don't worry, no harm will come to anyone from this action. Will you do it?"

Marteau nodded. "Yes I will I guess. I'm guessing this noble house is connected to you then? Who's the student coming to the school?"

Siesta smiled as she walked over to a doorway and walked halfway through it, stopping to say a last word before disappearing from sight. " It'll be my daughter."


	15. Act 2 - Ch 3 - Alliance

**Authors note: and as promised, now that Border is complete, it's back to messiah! I'll be trying to keep the updates regular for it, but we'll have to see. Now back to it we go, and back to politics. (Luckily it's not real world politics, or I'd kill myself.)**

* * *

**Act 2 – Chapter 3**

**Alliance**

* * *

Lieutenant General Jack Granger sat contently in the back of the Pitbull as it drove down the length of the Tristanian countryside. Since the Kodiaks landing everything had been one mass of red tape after another, but finally after almost a week of waiting, he was now going to speak with the leaders of the four primary countries of Halkeginia.

Four countries. That fact still did not sit well with him. The fact that this land looked so much like Europe was bad enough, but the fact that he could easily name each of Halkeginia four countries as countries from Earth made it even harder not to make assumptions about them, or their people.

What made things worse was that, right after this meeting, McNeill had set up a meeting with the strange covert organization called Gilded Cage, and Jack had to go to it right after.

"He's trying to kill me I swear he is. . . I'm too old for this. I should have retired when I was given the option last year." Granger muttered with a sigh.

"If you had we'd be stuck with that rooky Anderson, sir. We're all thankful you've stuck with us." The driver of the Pitbull suddenly said, never taking his eyes off the rough rural roads before him.

"Thank you for that, and I apologize for complaining to you. I have disrespected your respect for me."

"Hardly, sir.. . . . . . . .I can see Tristania's capitol now sir, we'll be in the city momentarily.

"Thank you." Granger said as he turned and looked out the window, just as they slowed to a crawl and entered the city.

An honest to goodness medieval fantasy city, complete with magic, cobblestone streets, and a complete lack of modern hygiene. It made Granger shudder slightly. It wouldn't be so bad honestly, but every person on the streets stared at the Pitbull as it went down the street, and it was stupidly easy to tell who was who. Regular citizens, called plebeians by the nobles stared at them in awe while wearing rags and simple clothing, while any nobles on the streets grimaced at them, or shot glares of anger at them in their well sewn clothes and coats.

It made little sense really. He had spoken to the nobles once, but in that one time they seemed to have decided that he was out to get them somehow. Did they not realize that GDI hunting down NOD would be a good thing for them as well? Especially if NOD already had a presence here?

That was the only real problem Jack Granger had with this place and its royalty. Despite telling them exactly what GDI was here for, they would not divulge any information about the 'heretics war' that McNeil had found out about through other channels. The fact that NOD had a faction here, one that had caused such a significant chain of events, worried him greatly. But not nearly as greatly as to why they would keep such information.

It was clear that he was not trusted by them. It made sense, as his forces literally came out of nowhere and asked for assistance. But he had given them no reason not to trust him as well.

Politics was a bitch, it always was and everything would be so much simpler without it.

"We are here, sir." the driver said as he stopped the Pitbull and stepped out of it, taking a few second to walk around and open the door for Granger.

Stepping out Granger looked up at the castle and heaved a heavy sigh. "Let's get this over with."

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"Thank you all for coming. Our final guest will be here in a few minutes I would think." Queen Henrietta said with a smile to the three people before her, the leaders of the other countries of Halkeginia. The table they all stood around was a perfect square, allowing everyone room to stand, and making it so no one person felt superior over others.

On one side of the table was the Romalian Pope, who now looked older, but only so much so that it made him feel stronger. His eyes were hard, and he continually tapped his finger against the table impatiently, yet had said nothing since he had arrived. It was hard to tell if he was simply impatient, or angry, and the fact that he was a void mage made that fact all the more nerve racking. Everyone knew what void mages could do when pushed.

Across from him were the leaders of Germania and Gallia. In the past, before the Heretic's war, they had not gotten along, but since then their friendship had deepened, and the sight of trade goods flowing through Tristania to the other had become commonplace.

The Germanian king looked no different than he had during the war all those year ago, still a mountain of muscle with a fire in his eyes that none could quench.

Beside him stood Gallia's queen, Charlotte Hélène D'Orléans De Gallia. During the war Henrietta had met her briefly, and found her to be a calm, if silent young girl at that time. Now she was anything but. Nearly the same height as the King of Germania, Charlotte was a fine specimen of a woman with a lithe and slim shape to her body and a clear eye for details. Her voice was like smooth ice, calculating and calm, and her shot blue hair was cut in such a way that it did not impeding her vision. She held a staff that reached barely to her head, and behind her stood a young girl who always wore a simple blue dress, a girl who was supposedly her aide, and went everywhere she did.

In the past, the last spot of the table would be taken by the leader of Albion, but Albion did not exist anymore, and the scar from the war was still clearly visible off the coast, glowing ominously at night. Now the leader of the group from the strange ship, calling themselves GDI, would be holding that position at the table, and it made Henrietta shed a silent tear for all those that lost their lives to the pointless war.

A war that from what the GDI leader said could be resurfacing again.

"Rather rude of him not to be here already, honestly." Vittorio Serevare, Pope of Romalia said with click of his tongue. His voice was hard and full of anger, and it made Henrietta wince a little it, though she did her best to hide it.

"I am sure they are simply, held up. With all of us here in Tristania, the streets can be quiet hectic. It is not every day we all meet, especially for something as . . . . . potentially dangerous as this." The Germanian king said, sounding calm and almost jolly as he tried to calm the pope.

Unfortunately, Charlotte didn't seem to have the same idea. "We should have invited the Elven priestess and general here as well. They know more about the situation than we do in all likelihood."

"What? No absolutely not! This is a Halkeginian problem, not theirs!" Vittorio barked in anger, glaring daggers at Charlotte who seemed completely unfazed by his actions.

"It was a problem that affected them before, and if this, General of GDI is correct, then it may affect them again. We are walking into a meeting with someone who knows more than we do on the subject at hand. It is not intelligent. We will be at a disadvantage."

"We are at no such thing! This foreigner comes here and demands what from us?" Vittorio asked in a rage as he looked to Henrietta, but then continued without allowing her time to speak. "He needs to learn his place and realize that we already dealt with those cultist heretics. They are gone for good!"

For a moment no one spoke up, until the door to the chamber suddenly opened, and Jack Granger stepped inside, his bodyguard closing the door behind him as he walked in. His clothing surprised the pope and Germanian king, looking very similar, yet very different from the formal wear a general of their own armies would wear. He had no metals or badges on his clothing, and the only thing that wasn't clothing was a very large pistol of some sort holstered on his left side. Stopping a few feet short of the table he looked at the four leaders and bowed to them slightly as he spoke. "I apologize for my lateness, your roads are hardly easily travelled, and we had to slow our pace or risk damaging them."

"Ah, of course. It is no trouble. We haven't yet started." Henrietta quickly said, gesturing for Granger to come up to the table as she spoke. "Everyone, this is Lieutenant General Jack Granger, the leader of those who came in the metal sky ship that currently sits near Tristania's Magic Academy. And the leader the group that calls itself GDI."

"I thank you for coming to hear what I have to say. Henrietta believed it was dangerous enough to involve all of your countries, so again, I thank you." General Grander said with another slight bow, clearly uncomfortable doing so.

"Then what is the problem exactly?" Vittoria asked angrily. "Queen Henrietta was surprisingly sparse in what she told us, saying that there was a possibility of a new cultist uprising and that you were somehow involved. But such a thing is impossible as we dealt with them years ago, so why are you really here?"

Granger turned his gaze to Vittorio and within a second the pope began to sweat. Something about Granger's gaze was strange, like he could pierce steel with it, and his tone was equally dangerous, like a man who had more experience than he let on. "And why, is it as you say, impossible?"

"Because! I wouldn't expect you to know, but the Heretics war is long over! The heretical cultists are no more, as are the demons they tried to summon to destroy us all! So what exactly are you playing at?"

General Granger sighed as he pulled a small disk out of his pocket and dropped it onto the table; it immediately began showing numerous holographic images of various Scrin units above the table. "Tell me, are these the demons you speak of?"

"They are. They look identical." Charlotte said simply.

"B-but how did you-?" Henrietta began to ask as she looked toward the holographic images, confused as to how they were there and how they came to be.

"It doesn't matter what it is." General Granger said as he took the disk and slid it back into his pocket. "Those, demons as you call them are called the Scrin. They are aliens that GDI fought against roughly as many years ago as you did, though I can guarantee we dealt with far more of them!"

"And what makes you so sure of that?" The Germanian king asked calmly.

"Because, they spread across our entire planet, and killed billions. Not thousands or even millions. Billions. We are still rebuilding from their invasion twenty years later, and some areas are simply uninhabitable now." General Granger said solemnly.

"And what does this have to do with your presence here? We killed them regardless!" Vittorio stated angrily, as if their accomplishments made them the better.

Granger glanced up to Vittorio as he pulled another hologram disk out of his pocket and dropped it on the table, showing a massive spiraling tower to everyone. "The Scrin attempted to create nineteen of these towers on our world, called threshold towers, in areas where Tiberium, what I've been made to understand you call death crystal, was in high supply. We destroyed all but one of these towers. Our scientist believed that they were to act as gateways, portals to another world, to their world. One month ago, GDI began an offensive to push Brotherhood of Nod forces away from the tower. At the end of the offensive, instead of retreating away from it, they retreated through it. We followed them to your lands. There is a single threshold tower on the western coast of this continent!"

The entire table was deathly silent. Henrietta looked worried, Vittorio horrified, and the Germanian king surprised. But the one to speak up after a few moments was Charlotte, who sounded completely unaffected by this information. "So demons could come through it In the future. It is something to worry about, but why should your enemy, this Brotherhood, be our problem? Can you not deal with them on your own?"

"We would." General Grander answered with a sigh." if we could. Unfortunately only a small portion of our offensive forces came through the threshold tower before it closed. Our command ship, the Kodiak, was damage in transit as well. We followed the Brotherhood as closely as we could, but their forces swung south of your lands, and our forces were exhausted and limited. We also know nothing of the landscape of your lands, or the sort of creatures and environments we would face."

"That still does not say why we should care about YOUR enemies!" Vittorio nearly screamed as he slammed his hands down onto the table.

General Granger gritted his teeth before he spoke up, barely able to hold in his anger. "It matters, because of what the Brotherhood of NOD is . . . . your enemy!" he stated as he dropped one last hologram disk onto the table and snatched up the previous one. As soon as he did, the new disk began showing images of Nod forces. Infantry, armour, and even buildings, and the expression that suddenly covered the pope's face was one of horror.

"I have discovered some sparse information about your, Heretics war, in these last days. The weapons and armour shown here should match some of what you saw then. There is also this." General Granger stated as he tapped the disk, causing one particular picture to show larger than the rest. The picture itself was slightly blurry, with an explosion covering most of it, but it clearly showed a young girl with pink hair in NOD armour. "I have been made to understand that the woman in this image bears a resemblance to the leader of your supposedly dead cultists, does she not?"

"H-how did you find out about-," Vittorio began to say in shock.

"Yes, she does look familiar, very much like the leader of the cult from the heretic's war. But she died at the end of the war." Henrietta suddenly said causing Vittorio to nearly growl at her.

"Be quiet, Queen Henrietta! We do not need to-"

"No, you be quiet, Pope!" The Germanian king suddenly called, "We have given this man no information and he has found it anyway, hiding things will get us nowhere. Where was this scene you are showing us?" He asked as he turned his attention back to Granger.

"Almost twenty one years ago on our world. She was responsible for destroying our most powerful weapon in that field of operations, and, we believe, was also responsible for many other actions as well, until she simply disappeared from our reports."

" . . . . Why are you telling us this? Are you saying the cult leader came from your world?" The Germanian king asked curiously.

"Yes, but I'm showing you this to make it easier to understand. Your cult leader was a member of the Brotherhood of NOD, the same group who we chased through the threshold into your lands. Even if that faction of them was destroyed here and their leader killed as you say, the Brotherhood forces that we have chased here to your lands could rally the remnants of the NOD forces you defeated!"

" . . . B-By the Founder." Vittorio muttered in horror as he leaned back a bit, overcome by the realization that another heretics war could happen at any moment.

"You are here to ask for assistance in finding and defeating them, are you not?" Charlotte asked inquisitively, a flash in her eyes the only thing showing that she had already sorted out all the information in her head and figured out what Grangers intent was.

"Yes," General Granger said with a nod of his head. "I would like to formally ask for Halkeginia's assistance in finding, and eradicating, the Nod presence in these lands, for both of our sides. GDI is preparing to offer recompense as well if the need arises."

"What sort of recompense?" The Germanian king asked, sounding disinterested as he continued to stare at the picture of the woman they knew as the Prophetess. Someone who while long dead, had nearly destroyed Halkeginia.

"Technology primarily. GDI has access to high technology, including technology that can destroy Tiberium!"

Everyone's eyes shot to General Granger in surprise. Even Charlotte looked surprised, and had a small smile on her lips. "You can destroy the death crystal?" she asked hopefully, recalling the mass that was once the Gallian castle. It had been destroyed when the Prophetess had killed her uncle, but over the years small shards of the crystal seemed to grow out of the mound, making rebuilding the castle in the same place impossible. No one even got close to that place now, as doing so often meant sickness that could last for weeks, and often led to painful death.

"Yes. We have technology that can destroy Tiberium, though the process is slow. Your world has not had large amounts of it anywhere except for that island offshore, yes?"

"Correct, that island used to be the country of Albion, but no longer. No one goes near it now." Henrietta explained with a hint of sadness to her tone.

"I see. After some time, Tiberium can begin to corrupt and change the environment, so it's best to stop it from spreading sooner rather than later." General Granger explained, though he didn't need to. Over the years every country had found out just how terrible the crystal was. Anyone that touched it became sick. If it cut them they would begin turning into more of it, and it was well known that no animals were ever seen near the remains of Albion.

"If we agreed to assist you in this matter, what exactly would you require?" Charlotte suddenly asked.

"GDI would require three things primarily." General Granger said as he raised up three fingers." Information, such as full disclosure of all the prior events and information you can give, as well as updates related to current events, a place for us to operate from, and food and water reserves."

"information is easy. There is no real reason to not share it now." Charlotte stated, earning an angry glare from the pope as she spoke. "How much room would you need to operate?"

"We would need roughly five square kilometers of area, primarily for our strike craft to be maintained. One of my techs has informed me however, that there is a space on the ruined landmass of Albion that would be sufficient for us to build our base. If we did so there, we could utilize the Tiberium while we remove it."

"What? Why would you willingly go near death crystal?" Henrietta asked in surprise.

"Tiberium naturally absorbs other matter from the environment around it. What this means is it absorbs metal as well. We have a process that can safely turn it into metal, and the process will remove the Tiberium from the environment as well." General Granger replied.

"And the food?" The Germanian king asked with a raised brow.

"While we can fabricate the majority of our mechanical need from the Tiberium we get of that island, we cannot fabricate our own food or water from it, and our own reserves of food and water will only last so long."

"We . . . will need to work out some kinks with this, to decide upon what information cannot be given and such before we agree to helping you." Vittorio said as calmly as he could, avoiding eye contact with Granger as he spoke.

"No, we will not. Tristania agrees to help your organization in this matter, for the protection of Halkeginia." Henrietta stated proudly.

"As does Germania!"

"Gallia agrees as well!"

Vittorio gasped as he looked to the others at the table and scowled. "Very well. Romalia will . . . . agree."

"Then its decided. I shall contact our elven allies. They will want to know what has occurred here, and likely will be interested in meeting you, General." Henrietta said to Granger with a smile.

"I thank you for that, Queen Henrietta. Does GDI have Halkeginia's permission to base ourselves on Albion?"

"It is not Albion, not anymore." Vittorio scowled as he looked away from Granger.

"Yes, that would be best for everyone. How long will what food you have last?" the Germanian king asked.

"A few days, a week at most." Granger replied honestly.

"Then I shall stay here in Tristania for a few days to help coordinate efforts to transport food and water to your people. If you return in a few days we should be able to figure it out, I would think?"

"I believe so." Henrietta agreed instantly.

"Good. I thank you for your understandings in this matter. If there is nothing else that must be discussed now, I shall take my leave, as I shall need to be present to mobilize and organize our forces to the island." General Granger stated, earning a quick nod from Henrietta." Then until next we meet."

Vittorio glared at General Granger until he left the room with his guard, then turned his angry gaze to Henrietta, "Just what in the Founder's Name do you think you are trying to pull? He could be lying through his teeth with that strange magic of his!"

"I believe that working with them will be the best thing we can do. At the very least if they can get rid of those death crystals it will give all of our lands some peace of mind." Henrietta responded.

"I agree, and I sensed no ill will from that man. I believe we can trust him." the Germanian king said with surety.

"Lies. They are nothing but lies! They are simply using the Heretics war for their own ends and-"

"Are you not simply worried about the truth from the war getting out." Charlotte interrupted Vittorio, causing him to stare at her in shock.

"No, you wouldn't."

"it is hardly a secret if you look into it deeply enough. Nearly every person that joined the cult during the war were plebeians from low areas of Halkeginia. Yet it was a fact that many used magic during the war." Charlotte began causing Vittorio to look uneasy." These past years there have been reports of Romalians altering the history of how the war went in history books and schools. Are you not simply trying to hide what happened?"

"You dare?! I am acting in the best interest of the Founder! The only truth our people need is the Founder's truth, and the lies of that war could cause people to lose faith. I am simply rewriting the events to suit the Founder's will!"

Heaving a heavy sigh the Germanian king walked around the table and stopped beside Vittorio, glaring down at him while looking imposing as possible. "I do not care what you try to do with the church, but Halkeginia should always come first, and protecting our people from those crystals will protect Halkeginia!"

Vittorio took a nervous step away from the Germanian and scowled. "Halkeginia is worth protecting and our people's belief in the Founder is what will protect them! How long do you think you can get away with so blatantly denying the words of the church!?"

"Your words, or the churches' words? While you may be the pope, you are not Brimir, and your words do not automatically mean they are the churches." The Germanian king said grimly down at Vittorio.

"Y-you think I will stand for such insults, you Germanian berserker!?" Vittorio called out as he turned and began heading for the door. "Do what you like with you're new little heretics. You'll realize you're mistakes soon enough!

"Well, that could have gone better." Henrietta said with a sigh as Vittorio left the room, the door slamming behind him.

"No, it couldn't have. Ever since the Heretics war Romalia has been stepping up their religious actions. I get reports of extremely overzealous missionaries in Germanian towns almost every other week, and most of them are not taking no for an answer. If anyone ignores them they begin yelling and calling people unbelievers as the nicest thing." The Germanian king stated with a sigh.

"He's becoming paranoid." Charlotte said simply. "It appears to get worse as time goes on. Just as many Crystalists were from Romalia as the rest of our countries I believe, so it worried him. Now it controls his actions."

"That is sad, but there's little we can do about it for him." Henrietta admitted sadly, before looking back up. "We should prepare though, we do have another meeting to get to soon after all."

"Yes, and I will be very interested in asking Mister Colbert just how much he told Mister Granger's people!"

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Michel McNeil walked down a dirt road of the Tristanian countryside with a calm smile on his face. He was wearing casual clothing, a pair of jeans, a simple brown shirt, a tan leather jacket, and only had his trusty sidearm on his person, but he didn't think he'd really need it. His new clothing would look odd to most of the natives of the lands, but he hoped he wouldn't look to strange or dangerous dressed as he was.

Having walked around the capitol of Tristania twice already when meeting with the Gilded Cage people, he had gotten a decent feeling for the culture and technology level of the land, or lack thereof. The culture was similar to medieval, maybe renaissance Europe and most of their culture was directly related to their church, and magic as they called it. He had trouble believing magic could exist, but if the Scrin could build gateways that reached the stratosphere in a matter of weeks from their arrival, anything was possible really.

The other thing he realized about this land was that while their technology didn't even have basic sanitation like a working toilet, the air itself, outside and even in the city, was much different than on Earth. Even in the blue zones the air always smelt Smokey, dirty, arid, and polluted from decades of industry and then the chain of wars with NOD and the Scrin. GDI had built dozens of recyclers across the world to try to purify the air, especially in yellow zones, but it was a slow, tedious process. Here in Halkeginia though, the air was clear, warm, smelled like the season, and filled McNeil with an energy he hadn't felt in years.

It was amazing what clean air could do for the body and mind.

Walking down the dirt road McNeil found what appeared to be a broken wagon sitting at the side of the road beside a patch of trees. A man sat on the edge of the wagon, looking like he could care less about anything going on around him. And it reminded McNeil of what he was actually supposed to be doing out here on his own.

Attending a meeting.

"Hey, you doing okay there?" McNeill asked in a friendly tone as he walked over to the man and his wagon, both hands in his jean pockets.

The man looked up at McNeil and smiled slightly. "I'm fine. The Brimir damned wheel on my cart broke off is all. I sent my son back to our village with our horse to grab new one. He should be back pretty soon."

"That's good." McNeil said as he gazed up at the tree's behind the wagon, seeming to loom over it in the shade. "At least you're nicely in the shade, though the trees are kind of like a cage."

The man smiled larger. "I suppose so. What kind of cage though? A cage of wood? That wouldn't hold anyone at all."

"Nah, gilded iron, I think. You can see through it. To an extent at least."

The man smiled even larger. "Excellent. Swing around the trees. My wagons blocking a thin path to the building, just head in and down the stairs."

"Thank you kindly." McNeil said with a nod as he began walking around the wagon. Just as the man, apparently a guard, had said, a thin, overgrown path was hidden behind the wagon between the trees. The path was choked with growth, but McNeil didn't have to move anything aside and found the walk rather calming as he found a small house in a clearing. The house itself was unassuming, but covered in moss and foliage, but inside he could see light, probably from a lamp or torch within. It made him happy that he had a flashlight on his pocket.

Taking out the flashlight, and his sidearm, a GDI Nighthawk pistol he got ready to enter the house. Throwing open the door and using his flashlight to glance around with his pistol at the ready McNeill found the entire house abandoned, the walls broken down, and a single lamp sitting on a table beside a flight of wooden stairs. Wooden stairs that went down into the earth.

"Ugh, why is everything always underground." McNeill muttered as he very carefully began walking down the stairs, finding that being quiet while doing so was virtually impossible due to how much noise they made with every step. The fact he was wearing combat boots probably didn't help the matter though.

The stairs went down much further than McNeill figured they would, and at the bottom he found a room that did not match anything he had seen previously in getting here. The room itself was about thirty foot square with stone walls, a tile floor and lamps hanging from the roof. In the middle was a large wooden table, and around it, where a number of people. The Tristanian, Germanian and Gallian sovereigns, the headmaster of the magic academy the Kodiak was currently still parked beside, and his boss, General Granger. There was also a red headed, and stupidly endowed woman with brown skin who stuck close to the headmaster, his wife or lover if he recalled, he wasn't sure which though.

"So, it seems I'm the one who's late for once. That's a surprise." McNeil said sarcastically.

"No, you're the one who is always late unless the situation is a Scrin invasion or NOD Temple!" General Granger said with a sigh, either not picking up on or not caring about McNeil's sarcasm.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. So, how'd your meeting go?" McNeil said as he walked fully into the room, found a chair against the wall and quickly sat in it, not caring that he was in front of royalty in the least.

"It went,.. better than expected." Granger admitted, causing Charlotte to step forward.

"We have agreed to assist GDI officially with information and foodstuffs."

"So I won't have to train medieval knights how to survive a carpet bombing then? Good!" McNeil said with a sigh as he looked back at Granger. "Where are we setting up base then?"

"On the island off the coast. We'll use the Tiberium there to repair and rearm, and doing so will allow us to remove it, and see if it has mutated on this world."

"Hope not, when it mutates it always comes with a snag."

"Wait, death crystal can mutate?" Henrietta asked in surprise to this information.

"Yes, but if it had already, you would have noticed at this point." McNeil said as he looked at the sovereigns, realizing that he had only met the one before this time. "Captain Michel McNeil, GDI Special Forces and ground commander." He introduced himself.

Granger sighed as the sovereigns introduced themselves again. This was going to be a long meeting, but at least it would give them most, if not all the information they needed to operate successfully in this strange land.

He just hoped it wouldn't take too long to set up their base, every minute they were held back was a minute Kane was likely using to his advantage.

And that was what worried him the most.


	16. Act 2 - CH 4 - Eastern Reunion

**Act 2 - Chapter 4**

**Eastern Reunion**

Nona Oda sighed to herself as she sat atop her horse. They were finally leaving the deserts of the Elves that sat to the west of Nippon, and it had been a day since they had entered the mountains hat separated the two. and it would be another three before they would be back in the lands of Nippon.

"Lady Nona, are you alright?" one of Nona's honor guard, a man named Lin Xui asked. He was a tall man with prominent muscles and short black hair. He wore armour the color of ripening red apples, and he held in his right hand a long shaft of wood topped with two metal prong like spikes.

"Ah, yes, of course!" Nona replied quickly with a smile. "Do I look otherwise?"

"It would be wrong of me to say so, my lady, but you look deep in thought." Lin Xui said calmly. For one like him, a simple honor guard to speak so truthfully to Nippon's Smiling Princess would normally have been taboo, but in the weeks of serving as her honor guard, he had found Nona to be cheerful and more than willing to loosen the barriers between rank. It was yet another reason why she was loved by the masses of the people.

Her thin, and spotlessly clean skin that shone like moonlight. Her long raven black hair done into a ponytail. The regal garments of simple bright green like grass and the few bare pieces of silver metal that gleamed over her clothing. She was the angel of Nippon, the Smiling Princess, and the simple fact that he was with her honor guard was a blessing from the gods themselves.

"I, suppose I am." Nona admitted, looking downtrodden as she did. "Brother wished for us to create, at the very least, an understanding with those elves in the west. The fact that they refused everything I asked or suggested is worrisome. They seem to not trust us, in fact they seem to hate us. I do not wish to worry my brother with the possibility of Nippon having more enemies, not after we've finally managed to unite our land and bring peace to it!"

"The Peace of Nippon was fought for with much blood, and tears. It will not fall so easily." an old general by the name of Yuu Shin stated. He was broad built, with a bald head and yellow eyes like the sun. He carried a large curved blade on his waist, and a heavy shield of steel and bamboo on his back with the image of a rising moon stained on its back. He was known as a simple and reliable man, and was the other of Nona's honor guards.

In front and behind them were two carts and numerous men on horses, the main body of Nona's diplomatic mission, with the equipment and provision for such a march, and guards in case of banditry.

"Peace is a transparent lie, one that must be held onto, if a land is to flourish." stated Xin Lao lung, the head diplomat. He was a man with long white hair done into a simple braid down his back. His beard was long and white as well, adding to the look of wisdom in his grey eyes. He wore simple robes, but they concealed weapons that Nona, Yuu and Xui knew he hid in the fold of clothing.

"Peace must be worked for, and it is not a lie." Nona replied strictly to Xin. The two of them never saw eye to eye, and had very different views on most things. They did however agree on things when it came to the important choices for Nippon, though it made no difference with the elves, who had ignored everything they said.

"If peace must be worked for, then we have our work cut out for us." Xin said with a shake of his head, very annoyed by how things had gone for them. They denied an alliance, a peace treaty, and even simple trade negotiations. Stating they would have to converse with their 'current allies' about the possibility, and that they would not have an answer for many months. It was all a waste of time; nonhumans making them wait for no reason whatsoever.

"Yes, we will." Nona said with a sigh as she looked up ahead, noticing the sky ahead them turning orange and red. "It is getting dark. We should set camp before it becomes too dark."

"Agreed. Our ladyship is correct. Pull over to the side of the road and make camp!" Yuu called out loudly so that the entire convoy would hear him, and within seconds it began doing just as he commanded.

Following them over, Nona was the first to jump off of her horse, doing so with a grace that her looks did not show. Yuu and Win however spoke up immediately.

"My lady, please stay to the side. We do not wish you to be hurt.

"Indeed."

Nona scowled at this, glancing to Lin for assistance. He merely frowned. While he was one of her honor guards, he was a lower rank than Yuu, and was not about to argue with a superior unless he was specifically given permission to. Doing so would not only tarnish his own honor, but that of Yuu and Nona's as well.

"General Yuu, I know I have told you many times that I do not care for sitting idly by while others work around me when I could assist!"

"But Princess Nona, that is not-," Xin began to say until she turned her glare to him, causing him to stop instantly. "And I know that my brother asked you to not hold me back in such things, Xin. I do not believe that a princess like myself should simply stand by while others work. I will assist, even if I must only assist in the simplest ways to appease your ego!"

Both diplomat and general sighed heavily. They had tried to stop this many times already for it being improper, but both their lord and his sister were progressives, wanting to be directly in what was being worked around them. They had no choice but to drop the subject.

"Very well, my lady," Yuu said with a nod. "Would you then perhaps be willing to light some torches around the camp?" Yuu asked, noticing that many of their people were already setting up the unlit torches.

"Very well, and thank you for understanding." Nona said as she walked over to the nearest torch and raised a palm to it with a calm stare. "Flames of the Gods above and below, Alight the flames of life and destruction by my hand!" Instantly a ball of fire formed in front of her hand, before splitting into dozens of smaller fireballs that began circling around her like a barrier of flame. With a simple flick of a finger one of these balls of flame danced over to the nearest torch and planted it within, lighting it with a bright orange flame.

With a nod she began to walk around the camp, lighting torches as she went, and allowing Yuu, Xin and Lin to command and lead others to their jobs. Within minutes the camp was prepared and meals were being made. Everyone would be fed and the watched set before twilight was upon them.

And from the calm winds around them, it would be a similarly calm night.

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Shibata Katsuie growled as he swung his balled fit into a mechanical monstrosity, throwing it into a tree and smashing against it, blood and oil alike squirting out of it as it slumped onto the ground lifelessly.

"These creatures, once human now serve a demon of iron." Shibata said solemnly as he continued to walk through the forest.

"Sir Katsuie, our scouts have returned." said a shinobi that dropped out of a tree ahead of him, as silent as the graves of their ancestors.

A mere day and a half outside of the capitol Shibata had run into a massive number of survivors, trying to escape the metal menaces. They were mostly farmers, smiths and traders, but some few soldiers, shinobi, monks and priests had made it to join them. He had his duty to preform, he had to find and protect Nona, while giving her brothers sword to her, but he knew that he could not simply leave these simple and honourable folk to the monsters that had by all accounts now taken over the capitol. "Have they found anything of import?"

The shinobi nodded his head. "Yes. One scout believes he has sighted Princess Nona's diplomatic party from atop a nearby mountain. He clearly saw a camp being lit down in a valley that matched General Yuu's organizational methods. It looked calm, so he suspects that they do not yet know what is going on!"

Shibata stiffened at this news and grimly turned to look at the nearby mountains. "Which direction are they coming from. I must find them before those monsters do!"

"Please be calm, General." The shinobi insisted carefully." they are at least a day or two away. When we leave in the morning, we can head in their direction and meet them halfway."

"Those metal monsters do not rest or tire unless they are killed!"

"I realize this sir, but you have been moving constantly since this morning. You must rest if you are to make it to her in one piece. And everyone needs you as well. Please return to the camp and rest, sir. I will take over your watch."

Shibata looked at the shinobi and let out a sigh. "Very well, I shall take you up on that offer. Thank you."

"There is no need for thanks, sir. I merely serve the land how I can best, and that means keeping you alive and meeting Lady Nona, as she will be our new ruler in this dark time."

"Yes. She is the next in line now that our Lord has fallen. What dark times we live in indeed, when our smiling princess must fan the fires of war on her own."

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"Something is wrong." Xin muttered as the convoy moved down the road, the midday sun beating down on them from between mountain peaks and treetops that surrounded them on both sides. When they had set of in the morning everything had been fine, but as soon as they had entered this area of the mountains, everything felt wrong. The forest was to quiet. No bugs buzzed about, no birds sang in the sky, and no wind blew through the boughs of trees.

"I know." Nona said with a nervous glance toward the trees. It's unsettling. Like something is out there waiting for us."

"Perhaps something is." Yuu said grimly as he stood up in his stirrups and surveyed ahead of them, just before scowling. "Something ahead of us has spooked birds into taking flight."

Lin, Xin and Nona all looked at Yuu in shock. If something spooked them ahead of where they were . . . "We should prepare for battle. Horseback would not be a good idea with such narrow corridor to fight in." Lin commented.

"Indeed. All forces, dismount and prepare for battle at our head!" Yuu called out, his voice resonating to every soldier in the convoy, getting them to act immediately as he called out more orders. "Archers take to the rear for support; all forces form a wall to protect the wagons!"

As Yuu moved to the front of their forces on his horse Xin pulled back to the supply wagons, leaving Nona and Lin alone in the centre, Lin knowing exactly what Nona was planning on doing. "Yuu will be upset if you go up to the front." He stated calmly as he hefted his twin headed spear in his right hand.

"I know. I will not simply sit idly by while my people fight in front of me. If Yuu would be against my joining the men on the front, I will simply support them from here."

"Then I shall stay here as well." Lin said stoically. "Anything that tried to get to you shall become scars upon my spear!"

Nona smiled as she pushed the sleeves of her clothing up, revealing large bracelets on each of her wrists. Each bracelet was made of a piece of heavy cord with numerous Magatama around it. The Magatama were all of varying colors and hues, some even having spots of color. And for a very good reason; each Magatama was a carefully carved and infused magical jewel, carrying within it an element or spell, just waiting to be unleashed at the users will or word. While Nona was hardly a weapons master, her ability in enchantment and her capability with combining numerous Magatama spells to create new ones was well know.

And was something everyone present was about to rediscover.

Without any warning a swarm of people burst out of the forest ahead of them, surging towards them with swords in hand, and short barreled muskets in the others. All of them began firing as they ran, creating a cacophonous noise of death just before they met the soldiers awaiting them, the sounds of metal striking metal shrieking across the trees.

Their enemies were strange to say the least. They wore black plate armour with patches of cloth between them, but their bodies looked gaunt and thin, as if malnourished. They fought tooth and nail, but not a single one made sounds besides the odd screeching that seemingly came from their limbs. And all of them wore black helmets with a strange ominously glowing red cross on its faceplate.

At first many soldiers, and Yuu as well, thought they were just well equipped, if starving bandits. Unfortunately that concept was thrown off a high cliff when he took a step forward and thrust his sword into the head of one enemy, pulling it out to find no blood, or even refuse of any kind on his blade. Glancing at the body as it fell to the ground he reached down and grabbed its helmet, only to find it was not a helmet, it was its head, and the glass of it showed a mass of metal and sparks. "What sorcery is- These foes are golems of magic and metal!" Yuu roared at the top of his lungs." Give them no quarter, for you will receive none!"

This information came as a surprise to Nona and Lin, both of whom still had not had to engage the enemy, though both were ready. "Golems." Nona muttered as she immediately began summoning small fist sized ball of flame that began circling behind her.

"Made of metal no less. They will be dangerous and difficult to destroy." Lin said grimly as he twirled his spear a bit. "Perhaps I should join the front as-."

"No." Nona said seriously as she moved her hose parallel to the enemy lines and climbed up on it, standing fully on her saddle with her back to Lin." get down and hold my legs, I will need you to balance me!" Nona stated as she raised her palms out toward the fighting ahead of her, just as the flames circling her began to pulse and flicker, changing from red, to orange, to yellow, and then finally to white.

The heat was so intense that sweat was coating Lin's face as he climbed down and did as Nona had asked. The heat was however, not his primary concern. "M-my Lady this is improper, even if you ordered me to do it." Lin said squeamishly as he gripped both of Nona's ankles, keeping his head to the side. Her clothing did not have any gaps in it, but he did not wish to be seen as a lowborn pervert regardless of the reason, and kept his gaze away from Nona's person.

"Please get over it." Nona said, now breathing heavily as she summoned more fist sized white flames, increasing the number to amounts that stopped Lin from being able to count them all. "Controlling this much flame, and at this heat is . . . difficult."

Only then did Lin look up at Nona to realize how horrifying she looked. Illuminated in white light, her normally pale skin looked dangerously so, and her entire body, and her clothes were completely drenched in sweat. Her whole body, especially her legs and arms, were trembling, and Lin could see the small pieces of armour she wore beginning to glow from the heat, only her soaked clothing protecting her from it.

Then she unleashed her power, and the entire battlefield knew that nothing in the underworld could compare. Balls of white fire streaked and danced across the sky above everyone's heads until they made it to the enemy lines, and dropped onto them all at once.

"Shields up!" Yuu roared just before every ball of flame exploded, blinding anyone not prepared, and covering the golem's lines in white hot death that melted anything it touched.

When the light and flames died out and everyone could use their eyes once more, it became apparent that Nippon's Smiling Princess was also a harbinger of the gods own wrath. The ground where her fires had landed was melted into white glassy rock, no remnant of the golems closest to them remaining. The trees on the battlefield's edges no longer had leaves and were burnt to cinders along with the ground around the glassed earth. The only golems that were whole had been the ones closest to their own people, and even then their entire backs were melted into slag, leaving them helplessly immobile and easy to finish off. Their own people were mostly whole, some pieces of armour malformed from the heat, and hairs singed, but they had been far enough to be mostly unaffected.

All the soldiers let out cheers of victory as they cut into the surviving golems, barely a handful of them having been wounded, and not a one having died. Back in the support column however all eyes were focused on Lin, and on Nona, who had fallen off of her horse from exhaustion, being caught and carefully placed on0 the ground by Lin.

"H-how did . . . we do? Are our people safe?" Nona asked with pained breaths as Lin very slowly gave her sips from a waterskin.

"Yes, the golems were utterly obliterated." Lin said quickly giving Nona many short, quick sips of water to not injure her dry throat. "I've never seen such power though. I had not expected it, and some of your armour pieces are melted beyond repair."

Nona nodded with a smile as she coughed up a bit of water. "I figured they would be. Brother said I shouldn't wear metal, just for that reason." she said with a chuckle.

"Your brother knows of that spell?" Lin asked in surprise.

"He knows of all of them!" Nona said with a grim smile. "Why do you think the rice paddies of the Houshou family dried up in a day? Why do you think the Wu-sheng army was washed away in a sudden rainstorm that flooded their lands? Who lit the Asakura Manor into a conflagration? How did the Mori become frozen in a sudden blizzard that left them dead and like statues? And why did Fuji explode and destroy the Takeda in a wave of flaming earth and mud?"

Lin's face turned gaunt at the realization. "But that would mean . . . . . . . . None of it was the god's wills, smiling upon us?"

Nona simply shook her head. "There's a reason my brother cares so dearly for me, besides his undying love for me, of course. Please don't tell anyone, okay? Everyone needs something to keep them going and the gaze of heaven helps many."

"Of course, my lady. My lips are sewn shut."

"Thank you."

With Nona so weak and the injured to tend to, it was decided to camp, with doubled watches, and quickly evening fell.

"I said I'm fine now, Xin. All I needed was some rest." Nona said with a sigh as Xin stood in front of her, stopping her from leaving her tent in any way.

"No! I will have none of that! You used spells I had only dreamed of and looked like death had come to take you. We will leave again in the morning if you look healthy, but we shall not leave so close to the evening!"

". . . It's evening? How long was I asleep for?"

"From the end of the battle I am told." Xin said simply. "Lin told me you collapsed in his arms as he tried to give you water. I did not think fire could get a hot as you made it. But even now I am told the earth you, glassed, as some are calling it, is still warm to the touch and glows a warm orange."

"I see. . . . . ."

"Regardless you should go back to sleep. You still look haggard, and we must be ready to march in the morning. Yuu wants to make up lost time tomorrow."

"That will not be necessary." came Yuu's voice as he entered the tent with a bow. he looked utterly exhausted, like he had just ran a great distance. "Our lookouts spotted a person, not a golem, and you'll want to meet them, Lady Nona. May I send them in?"

Nona looked to Xin, who simply nodded, albeit nervously. "Please do."

To both of their surprise, Shibta Katsuie, Nobunaga's most trusted general stepped into the tent, looking sullen, tired, and relived all at the same time. "My Lady Nona, I am glad to see you alive and well."

"And it good to see you again, Shibata." Nona said with a smile, just as it soured. "Why are you here though? We are still at least a week from the capitol."

Shibata's expression became solemn. "My lady, I must inform you of what has passed while you have been away, and you will not like it." he stated as he pulled out Nobunaga's sword and presented it to Nona.

Nona looked at the sword in horror and spoke as she took it from Shibata. "Brother . . . he's dead?"

Shibata nodded.

"Then tell me, tell me everything!"

**Authors note: And now we can begin to see why the East is also important, at least I hope it can be seen. Hmm. Oh well, we'll see.**

**either way now that I'm back in the swing of messiah, hopefully I can crank out these chapters. **


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